The reading of the sentence was concluded in the late afternoon, in Luanda, after a long wait of almost six hours, due to the delay of one of the judges for personal reasons.
Former leader Honorilton Gonçalves, currently in Brazil, and three other co-defendants - Angolan bishop António Ferraz, Brazilian pastor Fernandes Teixeira and Angolan pastor Belo Kifua - were accused of various crimes, including criminal association, money laundering and domestic violence. , in a trial that began on 18 November 2021.
Honorilton Gonçalves was convicted of crimes of physical and psychological violence, with the sentence suspended for two years, and he will have to pay compensation of 30 and 15 million kwanzas to two victims who underwent vasectomy.
He will also have to pay a court fee of 1.5 million kwanzas, with the return of all seized goods and the release of accounts after payment of compensation to the offended parties.
The defendants were acquitted of the remaining crimes: criminal association, money laundering, fraud for fraud and illicit expatriation of capital, a crime that the court dropped as it was a transgression that is the responsibility of the National Bank of Angola.
In another autonomous process, in which Cremilda Domingos is offended, one of the assistants to the prosecution has already announced that he will appeal because he was not satisfied with the judgment.
The IURD in Angola has faced internal disputes since 2019, when Angolan bishops and pastors accused Brazilian managers of various crimes, namely money laundering, foreign exchange evasion, vasectomy obligation, as well as racism.
Brazilians accuse Angolan bishops and pastors, who have left the church, of acts of xenophobia and aggression, following the forcible seizure of temples across the country.
The justice opened the process now in trial, closed the temples and invited Brazilian missionaries to leave Angolan territory.
In turn, the authorities recognized as a legitimate interlocutor with the Government the reformist wing, led by Bishop Valente Bezerra Luís.
