In the application to which Lusa had access, the defense argues with violations of the principle of legality, since rejecting the appeal of the order of indictment based on the new Code of Criminal Procedure "constitutes a clear reduction of the defendant's defense rights" and with the principle of non-retroactivity of criminal law, considering that the application of a new law to an old situation is at stake.
"By not admitting the appeal filed by the defendant, the venerable judge advisor handed down a decision that seriously violates and diminishes the defendant's rights of defense, which curtails them and limits them in a clear and frontal offense to criminal law and the constitutional principles that the they underlie", reads the document sent to Joel Leonardo.
The Supreme Court rejected the defense's appeal regarding the indictment, maintaining the decision to bring to trial Hélder Manuel Vieira Dias "Kopelipa", Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento "Dino" and five other defendants, including three companies, for the crimes of influence peddling and money laundering, among others, within the scope of the process involving the Angolan branch of China International Fund.
"Kopelipa's" defense also points out "irregularities" in the pronouncement order, claiming that it "makes a substantial change to the facts described in the indictment, by imputing new facts with criminal relevance to the defendant".
An "insane vice" that "irremediably affects" this decision, according to the request.
At issue are the fact that different loans appear in the indictment and in the investigative decision, some relating to China Sonangol International Limited and others to China Sonangol Holding Limited and China Sonangol Limited, some of which without reference to amounts and dates, being limited "to to place a blanket of suspicion on the accused regarding facts that are not included in the accusation, that have not been demonstrated, nor even indicted", he adds.
According to the defense, the attribution of these facts constitutes a new matter of fact and given their criminal relevance, they cannot be included in the pronouncement order "under penalty of its nullity".
The request also points out "facts wrongly attributed to the defendant", with regard to a housing project in Zango (Luanda), when "Kopelipa" was no longer director of the National Reconstruction Office, as well as a crime of abuse of power that was non-existent at the time of the commission of the facts, because the facts attributed to him refer to the period between 2008 and 2020 and this crime was only classified in 2021.
With regard to the crime of embezzlement, one of the seven of which "Kopelipa" is accused, the issue is, according to the defense, errors in the legal classification of the facts attributed to him.
As for the remaining crimes – with the exception of fraud crimes and embezzlement –, the document consulted by Lusa states that these are covered by the Amnesty Law, according to which all crimes punishable by a prison sentence of up to twelve years, committed by national or foreign citizens until November 11, 2015, are amnestied.
The former head of the secret services and head of the former President's Military House, José Eduardo dos Santos, is accused of crimes of embezzlement, fraud by fraud, document forgery, criminal association, influence peddling, abuse of power and money laundering.
The former head of communications services Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento "Dino", as well as the lawyer Fernando Gomes dos Santos and You Hai Ming, from China Internacional Fund, will face charges of fraud by defrauding, document forgery, criminal association, influence trafficking and money laundering.
The process also involves the companies China International Fund Angola, Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited, which will respond for the crimes of influence peddling and money laundering.
The companies were allegedly used by the defendants to set up a scheme that harmed the Angolan State in millions of dollars, involving a financing agreement between Angola and China to support national reconstruction, after the civil war that ended in 2002.
In 2020, the two former strongmen of José Eduardo dos Santos, who died in 2022, had to hand over to the State several companies and buildings owned by their companies China International Fund Angola - CIF and Cochan, S.A., including cement and beer factories, a supermarket chain and residential buildings.
The former vice-president and former leader of Sonangol, Manuel Vicente, is not among the defendants, whose name is also absent from the list of more than 30 witnesses, despite being mentioned in the process, as part of his connections to the CIF.
