The reporting judge of the case, Anabela Valente, presented the answers to the preliminary questions raised in the second session of this trial, which began on March 10 of this year and was suspended several times due to the absence of the defendant China International Found (CIF) Angola, who will be tried in absentia.
In presenting the preliminary issues, the defense requested the acquittal of the defendants, the application of the amnesty law, invoking the 2016 law that granted amnesty to all crimes punishable by imprisonment of up to 12 years between November 11, 1975 and November 11, 2015, excluding the crime of embezzlement, also requesting the prescription of some crimes and the nullification of the process, as well as the lifting of the personal coercion measures prohibiting departure from the country.
Defendants Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior "Kopelipa", Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento "Dino", the two accused of defrauding the Angolan State of millions of dollars, Yiu Haiming, Fernando Gomes, the companies Plansmart International Limited, Utter Right International Limited and China International Found (CIF) are accused of the crimes of embezzlement, fraud by defrauding, document forgery, criminal association, abuse of power, money laundering and influence peddling.
The companies will have been used by the accused to set up the 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 named several times in the indictment.
In response, the court considered that at least three allegations presented by the defenses were not preliminary issues, but rather a matter of law, also not accepting the request for amnesty for defendants Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior "Kopelipa" and Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento "Dino", because their last acts of criminal conduct were committed in June 2020.
According to the judge, given the ongoing crimes, with the last act committed in June 2020, the Amnesty Law "does not apply", because the facts are later".
Regarding the request to lift the personal coercive measure of prohibition of leaving the country, for the defendants "Kopelipa", "Dino" Yiu Haiming and Fernando Gomes, the court recognized that the defendants are complying with the measure beyond the stipulated deadlines, however, as the trial sessions of this case are in progress, "the rights of the community and individual rights of the defendants are in dispute", with the former prevailing.
"With the course of the trial we are faced with two fundamental rights, for the individual and for society, because, if, on the one hand, we have the physical freedom of the accused, on the other hand, we have the right to social peace as enshrined in articles 11 and 36 of our Constitution", he stressed.
The defendants' lawyers, dissatisfied with the responses, filed an appeal, which the court admitted, as being "legitimate and timely".
Once this part was finished, the judge intended to start questioning the defendants, but the defense claimed the right to contest the Public Prosecutor's Office's complaint, a request that was granted by the court.
In their defense, all the lawyers reiterated, in short, the request for the defendants' acquittal.
The public defender of CIF Angola, who requested five days to have contact with the accusation and the ruling, must present his response in writing, which will be attached to the records.
