Sério Raimundo commented, in statements to the Lusa news agency, on the crisis that has been witnessed, in recent months, in the Angolan justice system, involving the highest figures of the superior courts of Angola, more specifically the president of the Supreme Court, Joel Leonardo, and the former president of the Court of Auditors, Exalgina Gamboa, both accused of various crimes, such as embezzlement, influence peddling, nepotism, extortion and corruption.
The jurist considered that for the two cases, the President, João Lourenço, is using "double weights and two measures", acting differently "for equal situations".
"Unfortunately, I think the President is using double standards for equal situations", he said.
According to Sérgio Raimundo, in relation to the case of the former president of the Court of Auditors, the head of state "almost said publicly that there was evidence that she had committed those illicit acts", while in the situation of the Supreme Court "he practically came to make his defense, saying that (...) there was no evidence and that they could not act on the basis of information published on social networks".
"But either case started on social media. We all started hearing about the problems of the Court of Auditors on social media, through Maka Angola, and other social media (...), in relation to the president of the Supreme Court , the main source was Club K, so I don't see what the difference is", he stressed.
"And, I think, that within the scope of the constitutional precept, which the President of the Republic says he has used to guarantee the normal functioning of the State institutions, he should also act like this in relation to the Supreme Court, to guarantee the normal functioning of this organ of sovereignty of great weight within the scope of common justice, which could discredit the entire Angolan justice system and throw to the ground all the efforts that the President of the Republic himself, as holder of the Executive power, has carried out to attract investments to our economy", he stressed.
"Because nobody will want to invest in a country where the superior court, the main figure of the superior court, is put in the mud, the way we are watching", he added.
Sérgio Raimundo considered that "the most serious and fastest way was precisely for the President of the Republic to invite the President of the Supreme Court to step aside temporarily as he did with the President of the Court of Auditors".
"There it was definitive, but here at least he could step aside temporarily so that, according to legal criteria, the oldest president of one of the chambers would replace him in the presidency of the plenary in the holding of the various sessions, until the situation of the current president", said the jurist, reiterating that "this is the most demanding, it is what the ethical minimum demands", if in fact it is intended to "moralize the institutions and society".
For the lawyer, what has been seen in court "is very serious, worrying and destabilizing for the functioning of the country's institutions".
Regarding the last deliberation of the plenary of Supreme Court judges, who decided to remove him from the leadership of the sessions, the presiding judge of that court, Sérgio Raimundo applauded the decision, "so as not to contaminate the credibility of the decisions that were handed down there".
According to the lawyer, the Superior Council of the Judiciary Magistracy (CSMJ) has no competence, citing article 184 of the Constitution of the Republic and number 26 of Law 14/11, to assess or annul a plenary deliberation, as it is a body sovereign, the council being a purely administrative body and having only as an alternative, through legal and judicial means, contesting or arguing the nullity of this resolution.
