The trial begins at 9 am and will take place at the Talatona Convention Center, depending on the number of actors involved in the process, including defendants, deponents, experts and witnesses.
"The Luanda Provincial Court understood that the place that most confers dignity to a trial like this, had to be a space with the capacity to accommodate more than 300 people", said Francisco Muteka, who represents Major Pedro Lussati and his nephew. , Fernando Dumbo, both detained in the prison hospital in São Paulo.
Among the defendants are officers of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and civilians, accused of embezzlement, criminal association, undue receipt of advantage, economic participation in business, abuse of power, fraud in the transport or transfer of currency abroad, illicit introduction of foreign currency into the country, illegal currency trading, prohibition of cash payments, withholding of currency, forgery of documents, money laundering and assuming false identity.
Major Pedro Lussati, considered the leader of the group, was arrested in June last year, after being found in possession of millions of dollars, euros and kwanzas stored in suitcases and crates, and also the owner of more than a dozen vehicles.
According to his lawyer, the soldier is "psychologically well", but weakened in physical terms as he is recovering from the fractures he suffered at the time of his arrest.
"He is undergoing physiotherapy and is in preventive custody in the prison hospital in São Paulo", Francisco Muteka told Lusa.
The long list of witnesses, who will be heard in July and August, include the names of Manuel Vieira Dias "Kopelipa" and Higino Carneiro, among other top generals of the Angolan Armed Forces.
Following these arrests, several officers linked to the President's Security House were dismissed, including General Pedro Sebastião, then Minister of State and head of Security House of João Lourenço, who was replaced in office by General Francisco Pereira Furtado.
The initial indictment, dated December 9, 2021, contained 51 defendants, but two were eventually withdrawn during the contradictory instruction phase of the process that became known as "Operation Crab" because there was not enough evidence to bring them to trial.
