"The reaction is of some surprise, not so much for the sentence that Manuel Rabelais was convicted, but for the justification that the venerable judge gives, because embezzlement is a crime of property and so far it has not been said specifically what was the patrimonial or material damage that Manuel Rabelais caused to the State, in fact the declarants made this clear," Amaral Gourgel, a lawyer, told reporters on Monday.
Speaking at the Supreme Court, at the end of the reading of the sentence that convicted the former minister and former director of the former Office of Revitalization of Institutional Communication and Marketing of the Administration (Grecima), for the crimes of embezzlement and money laundering, the lawyer refuted the arguments of the judge of the case.
The judge "said that he was convicted because the crime of embezzlement aims to protect the loyalty and public faith of public officials," he said, adding, "I honestly never heard that the crime of embezzlement aims to protect loyalty or public faith.
His co-defendant in the case, Hilário Gaspar Santos, at the time of the facts administrative assistant of the former Grecima, was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for the same crimes.
Manuel Rabelais, former Minister of Social Communication, is listed in the case as former director of the former Grecima, for acts committed between 2016 and 2017.
The sentence was presented this Monday by the judge of the cause Daniel Modesto, who at the end of his presentation said that the defendants, during the trial hearings, "showed no repentance and tried to evade in a cunning way the illicit acts they knew they had committed."
The defense, for its part, filed an appeal with suspensive effect, which was accepted at the time by the judge of the case, so that the defendants should await the appeal in freedom.
"And that was done and we asked for a suspensive effect of the decision and it was admitted and accepted by the court, and we will wait for the plenary of the Supreme Court to judge the appeal. They will remain at liberty until the appeal is judged," Amaral Gourgel stressed.
According to the indictment, the defendants defrauded the state of more than 22.9 billion kwanzas, being 4.6 billion kwanzas received directly from the General State Budget (OGE) and 18.3 billion kwanzas from the foreign exchange received from the National Bank of Angola (BNA).
Grecima was created in May 2012, as an auxiliary body of the former President, José Eduardo dos Santos, and extinguished, in 2017, by the current President, João Lourenço.
The institution had accounts domiciled at Banco de Comércio Indústria (BCI) where most of the foreign currency acquired at the BNA was channeled, and other commercial banks, including BAI (Banco Angolano de Investimentos), BIC (Banco Internacional de Crédito), SOL and BPC (Banco de Poupança e Crédito).
For Manuel Rabelais' lawyer, the return of some of his client's assets to the state "does not indicate any recognition that he has committed any crime."
"Because I know under what circumstances Manuel Rabelais voluntarily handed over some assets to the state, others were demanded from him, so it is not any recognition of having appropriated state assets," he argued.
Manuel Rabelais, the lawyer explained, voluntarily handed over some assets to the State, "based on the law of voluntary delivery of assets, but if we look, most of the assets he handed over are prior to his appointment as director of Grecima.
Questioned by Lusa about the lack of repentance of the defendants, as stressed by the judge of the cause, Amaral Gourgel considered that they could not show any repentance, because all the work done by them was in defense of the interests of the state.
"Therefore, they could not come here and show repentance, repentance is shown by those who are convinced that they have committed something or committed some illicit act, which is not their case," he noted.
"In fact our defense was always in the sense of their acquittal for lack even of legitimacy of the Public Ministry to bring this action, because the goods and monies that passed through Grecima's account are private monies and not public," concluded the lawyer.
