For Hélder Pitta Grós, it is not about fighting corruption, but rather improving procedures, motivating people to do more and better.
"It does not mean that this decision by the Supreme Court will jeopardize the fight against corruption and other issues, on the contrary, it will strengthen our way of acting, it will make us more attentive to certain procedures and that we can do so in a more intense way, with more vigor, always taking into account the prevailing legislation here in Angola", he said.
Hélder Pitta Grós was referring to the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court (TC) that declared unconstitutional the sentence of the Supreme Court, in the case of the illegal diversion of 500 million dollars from the National Bank of Angola abroad, which resulted in the conviction, among others, of José Filomeno dos Santos, known as "Zenu", son of former President José Eduardo dos Santos.
For the TC judges, the plenary session of the Supreme Court did not observe the principles of legality, fair trial and contradictory proceedings, and the case should be referred back to this instance so that the issues considered unconstitutional can be corrected.
According to Hélder Pitta Grós, who was speaking to the press on the sidelines of a conference on strengthening and cooperation between Angola, the European Union and the United Nations Organization on Drugs and Crime (ONUDC), what was called into question was the trial, for certain constitutional principles were not observed.
"The case will now be referred to the Supreme Court, which was the body that made the judgment and the Supreme Court will decide on the next step. We will have to wait for the Supreme Court's statement on where the case will go", he stressed.
José Filomeno dos Santos, former president of the Sovereign Fund of Angola, was sentenced, in the second instance, in August 2020, by the Supreme Court, to a five-year prison sentence for "committing the crimes of embezzlement, fraud by fraud and influence peddling."
The defense appealed the decision to the Constitutional Court, in 2022, as did the other three convicts, Válter da Silva, former governor of the BNA, Jorge Gaudens Sebastião, businessman and childhood friend of "Zenu", and António Bule Manuel, director of the BNA, all sentenced to prison sentences: eight, six and five years, respectively.
