Letters rogatory are an instrument used in judicial cooperation that consist of a request to carry out a procedural act that requires the intervention of judicial services from a foreign authority.
Businesswoman Isabel dos Santos is the target of legal proceedings in several jurisdictions besides Angola, including Portugal.
“We have already completed the process, the indictment has already been drawn up,” said the official, adding that this must be notified to the defendants before the case goes to court.
“There are defendants who are in Portugal, and we have already received a positive response to their notification and we only need to receive the response in relation to Isabel dos Santos. We have already written a letter rogatory to Dubai where she will presumably be living. We hope that, at any time, they will give a response, positive in the sense that they were able to notify or negative if they were unable to notify”, detailed Pitta Grós, adding that, in case of a positive response, the case can be sent immediately to the court.
Isabel dos Santos and four other defendants are accused of various crimes related to management at the Angolan state oil company Sonangol, between 2016 and 2017, and of having caused the Angolan State a loss of more than 208 million dollars, involving unduly paid salaries, sales with loss, tax fraud and fraudulent payments to companies.
Pitta Grós also gave an overview of other cases involving figures close to the former President and who are now facing justice, such as General Helder Vieira Dias “Kopelipa” and the former vice-president and former boss of Sonangol, Manuel Vicente.
With regard to “Kopelipa”, the contradictory instruction was carried out and the court is waiting to set a trial date, while in the case of Manuel Vicente the authorities continue “to work” on the process, said Pitta Grós, without indicating dates, admitting that the fact that the former ruler is abroad implies more delays.
“Many of the situations are also carried out abroad, we depend a lot on international cooperation, on the speed and efficiency of these countries from which we have been requesting some information that they can give us, I cannot say whether it will be at the end of this year or next year”, stressed the prosecutor.
Responding to Lusa, Pitta Grós added that Manuel Vicente has not yet been heard and that the total amount of assets that can be recovered by the State is unknown.
The head of the PGR stated that the fight against corruption, which brings great challenges “due to its complexity” has not slowed down in Angola, but has become less visible in the media.
“We have been working, but without much publicity about what we have been doing. Initially we intended to create a certain impact on people, so that they could curb their desire to have access to public goods and we somehow achieved it”, he joked, indicating that “there were practices that were no longer carried out”.
