"Due to the treaties between the two countries, and the historical ties, the Portuguese court accepted the Angolan decision which was based on false evidence. And it was applied automatically in Portugal. Isabel and Portuguese law do not have the capacity to change [the action], so [the entrepreneur] will challenge it in the European Court," she told Lusa Dan Morrison, who represents the entrepreneur.
The Public Prosecutor's Office requested the seizure of Isabel dos Santos' bank accounts "as part of the Angolan authorities' request for international judicial cooperation," the Portuguese PGR confirmed to Lusa on Feb. 11.
The decision was taken after the Luanda Provincial Court decreed, in December 2019, the preventive seizure of personal bank accounts of Isabel dos Santos, her husband, the Congolese Sindika Dokolo, and the Portuguese Mário da Silva, in addition to nine companies in which the businesswoman holds shares, for alleged private business that have harmed the Angolan state.
In this case, the Angolan State, represented by the Public Prosecutor's Office, made an extensive statement of reasons in which, in general terms, it maintains that Isabel dos Santos and her husband used funds, namely from Sonangol, to do business.
In addition to the seizure of bank accounts and holdings in Angola, holdings were also seized for several companies in Portugal.
The British lawyer, a partner in the London-based Grosvenor Law firm, has assured that he is willing to take legal action "in all relevant jurisdictions" to defend the client and unfreeze the assets.
One of Morrison's interventions this week was to write to Interpol for the international organisation to investigate the alleged corruption of two agents in Angola referred to in a document in the case of the Attorney General's Office (PGR) against the businesswoman.
The document states that Isabel dos Santos would be in contact with a businessman from the United Arab Emirates to sell his stake in the telecommunications company Unitel, who allegedly requested 'paid services from Interpol Angola' to investigate the company's situation.
The lawyer questions the veracity of the document, which was included in the PGR case that resulted in the seizure of the assets of the daughter of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, arguing that, contrary to what is suggested, Isabel dos Santos was more interested in buying rather than selling Unitel shares.
"What I am trying to question with Interpol are serious concerns that basically their name may have been used to justify the Angolan allegations," said Dan Morrison, a partner at London-based Grosvenor Law.
The suspicion raised by the company's legal team about this document, which has no indication of the source and is not dated, adds to doubts about further documents, including the inclusion of a copy of a forged passport signed by kung-fu fighter Bruce Lee.
"We have already seen the issue of the passport published in the press and how Angola has used fictitious documents, false documents. And we want to make sure that people whose names are being used in Angola to support these complaints are aware of these very serious issues," he said.
The "formal legal letter" contained a series of direct questions and Morrison hopes to receive a response not only from Interpol, but also from the Angolan authorities, who claim to have acted improperly by ordering the seizure of assets and not making the evidence available until five months later.
Isabel dos Santos believes she is the target of a 'politically motivated attack' and therefore has no confidence that she will be subject to a fair trial or that she will have personal security if she returns to Angola to defend herself against the charges.
According to the PGR of Angola, several civil and criminal cases are being brought against Isabel dos Santos, in which the state is claiming more than five billion dollars.
In January, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism also revealed over 715,000 files, under the name of 'Luanda Leaks', which detail alleged financial schemes of Isabel dos Santos and her husband, which have allowed them to withdraw money from the Angolan public purse through tax havens.
