The third trial session of the case, in which the defendants are Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior "Kopelipa", Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento "Dino" (former strongmen of the former President of the Republic José Eduardo dos Santos), Fernando Gomes dos Santos, Yiu Haiming and the companies China International Limited, Utter Right International Limited and Plansmart International Limited, was entirely dedicated to preliminary issues raised by the defense.
At the opening of the session, the presiding judge of the panel, Anabela Valente, said that Itamaraty did not respond to the court's request for the appointment of a Mandarin interpreter, whose absence led to the suspension of the previous trial session.
Two translators, provided by INTERPOL and linked to the Angolan Criminal Investigation Service, were present in court on Wednesday. They expressed fears at the outset that they would not be able to accurately translate the questions, as they were not familiar with technical and legal terms.
Although the Public Prosecutor's Office and some defense attorneys considered the translators' position to be pertinent, the attorney for Yiu Haiming, former general director of CIF Angola, dismissed the matter, citing the fact that these were preliminary issues and not a matter for producing evidence, and the court decided to continue its work.
Yiu Haiming's defense presented six preliminary questions, including the lifting of the coercive measure banning his constituent from leaving the country, who has been prevented from leaving Angolan territory for five years, where he is without family and without a job, and also requested his acquittal.
Also on Wednesday, the court responded to a preliminary question presented in the last session by the defense of the Chinese companies Utter Right International Limited and Plansmart International Limited, regarding an ordinary appeal of unconstitutionality filed, with objections regarding the adversarial investigation phase, which may have suspensive effects.
On this issue, the court read the Constitutional Court response that instructed the Supreme Court to continue the trial, because the appeal had not yet been admitted, which led the lawyer for the two Chinese companies to speak of "mistakes" in this position.
According to Benja Satula, "the court says that, despite everything, the appeal has not yet been admitted, that is, it has to be discussed in order to be admitted."
"Which we find, honestly, strange. But we will respect it, because we are in a democratic state governed by the rule of law. As a defense, we respect the decisions of the bodies, without prejudice to being able to react to these decisions," he stressed.
The defendants are accused of the crimes of influence peddling, money laundering, document forgery, criminal association and fraud by defrauding, in a scheme involving the Angolan subsidiary China International Fund and Sonangol, a state-owned oil company, which would have defrauded the State of millions of dollars.
According to the indictment, "Kopelipa", former Minister of State and head of the Military Household of the Presidency of the Republic, is accused of a total of seven crimes – embezzlement, fraud by defrauding, document forgery, influence peddling, criminal association, abuse of power and money laundering.
The former head of communications services "Dino", as well as lawyer Fernando Gomes dos Santos and You Haiming, from China International Fund, will answer for the crimes of fraud through defraudation, document forgery, criminal association, influence peddling and money laundering.
The new trial session was scheduled for next Tuesday.
