The Public Prosecutor's Office's position was presented this Tuesday in the form of responses to preliminary questions raised in the previous session of the trial taking place at the Supreme Court.
Sitting in the dock are Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior "Kopelipa" and Leopoldino do Nascimento "Dino", former strongmen of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, lawyer Fernando Gomes dos Santos, Yiu Haiming, and the companies China International Found (CIF), Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited.
The defendants are accused of the crimes of embezzlement, fraud by defrauding, document forgery, criminal association, abuse of power, money laundering and influence peddling, in a case that involves the diversion of millions of dollars from the State through Sonangol and where the former president of the Angolan state oil company is also mentioned.
In the second session of the trial, which began on the 10th, the representatives of "Kopelipa" and "Dino" invoked the 2016 law that grants amnesty to all crimes punishable by a prison sentence of up to 12 years committed, by nationals or foreigners, between 11 November 1975 and 11 November 2015, excluding the crime of embezzlement.
For the Public Prosecutor's Office, crimes are not pardoned, because the final moment of the defendants' behavior counts and not just the moment in which the crimes began, arguing that this "biased" understanding leads defendants to impunity.
In response to the Public Prosecutor's Office's response, the defense requested a hearing, but the Court rejected the request.
In an interview with the press, Benja Satula, lawyer for the companies Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited, regretted the court's position, stressing that the adversarial system is a structuring principle of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
"The Public Prosecutor's Office responded in the terms in which it responded, the defense understands that the responses were unsuccessful and, for that very reason, requested the right to adversarial proceedings, which is the law, so that we can issue our opinion in the appropriate forum on the Public Prosecutor's responses", he argued.
According to Benja Satula, there are examples of court decisions, on some types of crimes committed on the same date, which the Supreme Court considered to be amnestied.
Regarding the request to lift the coercive measures imposed on General "Dino", namely the return of his passport and the end of the ban on leaving Luanda and the country imposed five years ago, the Public Prosecutor's Office did not respond.
According to the defender, this was one of the issues that the defense wanted to refute, but "the court said nothing and the Public Prosecutor's Office said nothing, who knows why".
The lawyer highlighted that he is representing two foreign companies and that a trial always has some impact on the way investors will view the Angolan reality and on attracting investments to the country.
Tuesday's session already included the contribution of two Mandarin interpreters, sent by the Chinese embassy in Angola, with technical and legal expertise, who will assist in translating the questions to the defendant Yiu Haiming.
The next session was scheduled for Monday with the court's responses to preliminary questions.
