The lawyers stated that the campaign aims to transform São Vicente into a "trophy" in the fight against corruption.
In a statement, the lawyers consider that the "campaign to discredit Angola" against Carlos São Vicente, sentenced on March 24, 2022, to nine years in prison for the crimes of embezzlement, tax fraud and money laundering "must cease."
"And his release must be immediately ordered, as urged by the UN", say the lawyers, noting that in the last two weeks the Angolan authorities have been involved in a "true campaign of untruths and contempt" against the businessman.
According to São Vicente's defense, the Angolan authorities openly discredited the decision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that "condemned his arbitrary detention [in an opinion released last February] classifying it as interference".
"This unacceptable behavior, which testifies to Angola's determination to make Carlos São Vicente a trophy in the fight against corruption, confirms the highly political nature of the case", reads the statement.
The United Nations working group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that the detention of Portuguese-Angolan businessman Carlos São Vicente was arbitrary and called for his immediate release and compensation, according to the definitive opinion released in February.
The lawyers recalled that the UN assessment also indicated that São Vicente had been convicted following an "illegal process, by judicial authorities without independence" and, as a result, they added, "requests for international cooperation sent to foreign countries were also contaminated for illegality, and should not be executed".
The Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) of Angola said, on March 1, that Angola had not been notified of the opinion of UN experts on the São Vicente case, adding that it is trying to recover assets that are still in Switzerland and Singapore.
In a response to Lusa, on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the 2024 judicial year, which took place in Luanda, Helder Pitta Grós highlighted that the opinion related to the period in which the Portuguese-Angolan businessman was in pre-trial detention.
"This working group considered that his detention, because it was not carried out by a judge, was surrounded by some illegality, but we, at the time he was arrested preventively, did not yet have the figure of a guarantee judge in force. ", he explained.
In an attempt to justify the non-execution of this "embarrassing decision" the authorities "falsely claimed that they had not been notified by the United Nations", which is a "false" argument, they added.
"This is a false narrative, since the UN informed São Vicente's lawyers that the regular notification procedure had been well observed with Angola", they argued.
The lawyers also assured that the Portuguese-Angolan businessman did not commit any crime and that his assets, they note, "are of legitimate origin", noting that he acquired his shares in AAA companies in a "legal and transparent" manner in three steps, namely 49 percent in 2001, a further 21 percent in 2003 and a further 29.89 percent in 2011.
All transactions "were legal, documented, accounted for, audited and published in the Official Gazette", they stated.
