"I prefer exile than staying in Angola to be tainted with false accusations and possible political prison, for those who have no past or dignity for me to respect as my head of state," he said, referring to the current President, João Lourenço.
José Eduardo dos Santos' daughter also said that she will not bow her head “to be humiliated and pay a hypocritical vassalage” to the main detractor of the Santos family “in exchange for silence for maintaining a parliamentary position at any cost, or integration social with the condition of fawning ”who“ pimps it ”.
Tchizé dos Santos reacted to the statements of the politician and leader of PRA-JA Servir Angola, Abel Chivukuvuku, who defended the return to Angola of the relatives of former President José Eduardo dos Santos to defend himself against the accusations against them.
“There is a saying that those who should not do not fear (…) It would have been good if they were here and defended themselves here, showing that they are right and not afraid. It would be very good for the country, because when they are far away, people get the idea that they have fled ”, said Chivukuvuku in an interview to Lusa, questioned about the allegations of family members of the former head of state, who say they are being pursued by the current President .
“I would like to see if Dr. Abel Chivukuvuku was going to have that opinion when he was captured wounded by the government troops [MPLA] of the then President of the Republic and commander in chief José Eduardo dos Santos, after the 1992 clashes, if the PR were General João Lourenço and not dos Santos, ”said Tchizé dos Santos in a written message sent to Lusa.
At the time, Angola was still living in civil war and Abel Chivukuvuku, current coordinator of the installation commission for the political project PRA-JA, was a leader of UNITA, the main opposition party, having been wounded in military clashes in Luanda and kept in custody. government officials for almost a year.
Tchizé dos Santos, whose mandate as a deputy was suspended last October - having also been removed from the MPLA's central committee, and suspended for two years as a militant - says that UNITA “was luckier than the Santos family” because it was José Eduardo dos Santos who decided the fate of the defeated in combat, and not João Lourenço.
"If when Dr. Jonas Savimbi died in combat and UNITA was defeated, in 2002, the PR was Mr. João Lourenço, certainly the Dr. today would have no opinion because he was probably dead or in life imprisonment", replied to Tchivukuvuku.
In an interview with Lusa, Abel Chivukuvuku underlined that "I would like to see the things discussed here [in Angola]", while admitting that justice is "excessively" partisan.
"I am aware of this, but it is with our struggle that we will transform the phenomena, it is not by being absent from all this, it is participating, it is facing and showing the citizen: I am here", he insisted.
Three of the children of ex-president José Eduardo dos Santos have been under media attention, leading legal and political proceedings that, they claim, are persecutions.
The most famous is the case of the eldest daughter, businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, who was considered the richest woman in Africa, but in December saw her assets and company accounts arrested in Angola and is the target of civil and criminal cases.
The financial schemes of Isabel dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo, were exposed in an investigation by the international consortium of journalists that became known as “Luanda Leaks” and exposed how their fortune was built, withdrawing money from the national public purse, using tax havens .
The sister, Welwitschea “Tchizé” dos Santos, a former MPLA deputy, was removed from office in October 2019 for unjustified absences and was subsequently suspended as a militant for two years. Tchizé claims that she has been abroad for health reasons and said she was threatened with death and was being pressured to sell her stakes in Angolan companies.
The brother, José Filomeno “Zenu” dos Santos, is on trial in Angola. The son of José Eduardo dos Santos and former president of the Angola Sovereign Fund is accused of fraud for defrauding, money laundering and influence peddling in the case known as “500 million”, involving an alleged irregular transfer of 500 million dollars from the Bank National of Angola for the foreigner.
The father, José Eduardo dos Santos, lives in Barcelona and was called to testify at the trial, but chose to respond in writing assuming that he had given orders for the transfer of the money for which the son is on trial.
The trial was, however, interrupted due to the covid-19 pandemic.
