The trial, in which lawyer Fernando Gomes dos Santos, Yiu Haiming, and the companies China International Fund (CIF), Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited are also defendants, resumed this Tuesday after an interruption of almost a month, but the judge of the collective, Anabela Valente, chose to suspend the sessions again due to doubts about the current majority shareholder of CIF Angola.
The Public Prosecutor's Office agreed with the defense's arguments that it would be "more prudent and wise" to request more information from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the trustee of the assets, and from the State Institute for Asset and Participation Management (IGAPE), responsible for the CIF group's sales, given the fact that the corporate interests were handed over to the State.
According to the representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office, when the court has the elements that allow it to conclude that, in fact, the State is the majority shareholder, it will be possible to proceed with the trial.
The court even appointed Utter Right International Limited and Plansmart International Limited to represent CIF, "because they are partners", which was rejected by the defense, as it understood that the partners should be criminally prosecuted independently.
"The State claims the right to benefit from 60 percent of CIF's shareholding and Plansmart and Utter understand that whoever holds 60 percent of the company should represent it, and in this case it is the State, which is why they do not accept representation, because the powers for representation should result from a General Assembly that the State never agreed to hold with the defendants", stressed the defense.
Speaking to the press, lawyer Benja Satula, representing Utter and Plansmart, considered that the absence in court of a representative of CIF Angola is a problem, which "arose from the terms in which the public accusation was made".
According to Benja Satula, the accusation was made when IF - Investimentos Financeiros [a company linked to General Dino that held 60 percent of CIF] had already voluntarily handed over its shareholdings and assets, so that the State, represented by IGAPE (State Asset and Participation Management Institute), entered the shareholding structure."
"Bringing the CIF as a defendant was, in our view, an error of interpretation. However, at this level it is more difficult to do the opposite and, clearly, no one from the State bodies will be willing to sit in the dock, representing a society that is a defendant", he said.
Without a representative to appear in court, Benja Satula continued, the assets of the CIF universe, "the same company that is the defendant", are being sold, an issue that the court must resolve, "within the principle of sufficiency of the criminal process".
The last electronic auction of a group of five companies in the beverage, cement, logistics and automotive sectors was held this Tuesday. On April 24, 28 and 29, the CIF Cement Factory, the CIF Logistics Center, the Beer Factory (CIF Lowenda) and the CIF Automobile Assembly Unit were auctioned.
The trial, which began on March 10 of this year, is in its 6th session, still in the preliminary issues discussion phase.
According to the indictment, the companies were allegedly used by the defendants to set up a scheme involving a financing agreement between Angola and China to support national reconstruction after the civil war, which also included the China International Fund and its subsidiaries and Sonangol, whose former president Manuel Vicente is mentioned several times in the indictment.
The co-defendants are accused of the crimes of embezzlement, fraud through fraud, document forgery, criminal association, abuse of authority, money laundering and influence peddling.
The next session was scheduled for May 13th.
