João Gourgel considers that this is "an unprecedented case", as it is a criminal complaint against a magistrate in the exercise of her duties, telling Lusa that he will also file a hierarchical complaint against Eduarda Rodrigues with the Attorney General of the Republic and the Superior Council of the Judiciary of the Public Prosecutor's Office "for disciplinary reasons".
Since 2018, Eduarda Rodrigues has directed the National Asset Recovery Service (SENRA), an entity created to manage the process of recovering State assets illegally diverted, as part of the fight against corruption, which the President, João Lourenço, elected as the banner of his mandates.
The current SENRA list includes 223 recovered assets, 521 seized and 167 arrested, including the CIF Luanda One and Two buildings, belonging to the China International Fund Angola, a company linked to former vice-president Manuel Vicente, whose representatives in Angola, generals Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias "Kopelipa" and Leopoldino do Nascimento Fragoso "Dino", are accused fraud by defrauding, criminal association, influence peddling, and money laundering, among other crimes.
In the criminal report against Eduarda Rodrigues and Simão Chaluca, also a SENRA magistrate, João Gourgel complains of "actions and omissions" and claims to be being persecuted "without any incriminating element" or basis "that allows him to form a conviction of guilt".
He further stresses "that he cannot allow his reputation and good name to be called into question because of the clients he defends or the agreements he has reached throughout his life and professional career."
João Gourgel, who is also Kopelipa's lawyer, claims to have been surprised by an interdiction order, from the time the National Directorate of State Heritage took possession of the properties.
In the document that Lusa had access to, it says that it was notified on February 21, 2021 of the suspension of all activity on the 7th, 8th and 9th floors of CIF Luanda Two, being asked to present all the documentation that certify the ownership of these fractions.
He says that his law office remained closed for eight months, with employees denied entry and access to client documents and files prevented, a situation that led to "incalculable losses and huge expenses", a situation that was only reversed after being legal action was taken against the court decision.
"Not satisfied, they raised an incident of liquidation for loss in favor of the State" of these fractions, on the grounds that they were acquired fraudulently, a process that is still ongoing and in which, according to the document consulted by Lusa, neither João Gourgel nor Sojoca are defendants.
"It is worth mentioning that the fractions that SENRA intends to be lost in favor of the State are under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance and the National Directorate of State Heritage as indicated by the PGR", reinforces the participation delivered on Thursday to the PGR.
In the document, João Gourgel explains how the land on which the CIF buildings were built ended up in his hands and in those of the company he represents, Sojoca, since the time when the Sirius pension existed on the site, which was designed for shelter refugees who had since been transferred to a housing complex at the behest of the then Minister of Public Works, Higino Carneiro.
The pension was in the meantime demolished to make way for the Nzimbo building, which was never built, due to lack of funds from the developer who gave up his 50 percent stake to João Gourgel, with negotiations for the construction of CIF Two beginning at this time.
They culminated in the payment to Sojoca of the financial compensation and, in the end, the delivery of the 7th, 8th and 9th fractions, with the law firm starting works in 2018 to adapt the 9th floor to the installation of its offices.
João Gourgel claims to have presented to the Attorney General, Hélder Pitta Grós, documentary evidence attesting that he and the company Sojoca were owners of the 7th, 8th and 9th fractions of the CIF Luanda Two building, having the same information and documentation it was handed over to Eduarda Rodrigues who, however, did not make it available to the National Directorate of State Heritage, resulting in lawyers working at her office being banned from entering the aforementioned building.
João Gourgel accuses Eduarda Rodrigues of "embezzlement or misappropriation of evidentiary documents" and of continuing to raise incidents so that these fractions are lost in favor of the State, claiming that they are advantages of the crimes committed by Kopelipa.
Eduarda Rodrigues' behavior, accuses Kopelipa's lawyer, "has been to harm the participant [Gourgel] to the extent that she has used her functions and powers to persecute him in a completely abusive and illegal way".
João Gourgel therefore accuses the prosecutor of the crimes of slanderous denunciation, abuse of power, defamation and insult, persecution of innocent people, subtraction or diversion of proceedings or evidentiary documents, and SENRA of "lying, truncating and omitting the veracity of facts (...) in order to create the appearance" that he acquired the fractions in the CIF "in a fraudulent manner and, in this way, obtain the decree of their loss in favor of the State".
The lawyer also asks for compensation with a minimum value of 150 million kwanzas.
