PR: "Justice cannot fall into this trap of saying that if you are A's child you cannot be touched"

In an interview given to five media, João Lourenço was asked to comment on the criticisms made regarding the fight against corruption in Angola, carried out in the last four years.

"The idea is that what is intended is that our justice becomes effectively selective. Those who say that today Angolan justice is already selective, are those same people who, with these arguments I have just heard, who what do they want it to become selective and selective on the basis of what? Selective on the basis of the affiliation of people who are accountable to justice? Who is whose child?" in the Presidency.

According to João Lourenço, "justice cannot fall into this trap of saying that if you are a child of A, you cannot be touched, under penalty of saying that there is persecution".

The President informed that, from 2017 to the present date, the Attorney General's Office instructed more than 2300 cases, only relating to "so-called white-collar crimes or crimes against the economy", of which 330 became final, 26 of which ended in convictions, some of which in second instance.

"The court convicted, the convict appealed, he has the right to do so under the law, there was a second trial at second instance, one of the cases I know, this second trial did not relieve anyone, let's say he adjusted the sentences almost always to low, but kept the sentences, imprisonment," he stressed.

"So justice is being selective how?" - he insisted. "The 26 convicts also have a father, they also have a family, they also deserve the same respect and consideration from society and a decent treatment from the authorities. So, are these 26 convicts or a large part of them not being persecuted? They were convicted of the same type of crime , corruption, embezzlement, why don't you say it's persecution", he commented, suggesting that "they should stop this litany of persecution of the children of entity A or entity B", he stressed.

"The criterion has been: did you commit the crime or did you not commit the crime? Justice can only have one way of acting", he said, considering that "making our justice a selective justice is that, saying who is the son of A or B , he cannot be accused, tried, condemned by justice because he is the son of A, B or C," he said.

"Others, in the view of those who think that way, don't have a father, they don't have a family, those bastards who are thrown anywhere there, nobody cares about them, because they're not A's or B's children, that's what it means to be selective", stressed.