Sérgio Raimundo's position was expressed at the trial session in which Valter Filipe, José Filomeno “Zenu” dos Santos, former president of the Angolan Sovereign Fund, Jorge Gaudens Sebastião, Angolan businessman, and António Bule Manuel, BNA administrator, responded for an alleged improper transfer of US $ 500 million from the Angolan State to a bank abroad.
According to Sérgio Raimundo, when justice turns into political propaganda "it will be the end of the realization or materialization of the social project for the construction of the democratic rule of law", enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic.
"This is the risk that we run with this type of attitudes of the Public Prosecutor, in creating processes to feed political processes of certain groups that today probably lead the country", said the causidico.
The lawyer was referring to the request that the Public Ministry made to the court not to validate the letter of the ex-President, José Eduardo dos Santos, and father of the defendant José Filomeno “Zenu” dos Santos, who confirms that he authorized Valter Filipe to conduct the process and transferring the $ 500 million.
Sérgio Raimundo questioned the reason for “so much resistance in the preparatory instruction”, when José Eduardo dos Santos was still in Angola, of the Public Prosecutor's Office to attend the defense request to hear it.
“Even, at least, to give him the opportunity to exercise his right of defense, by the way his name is exposed to the mud at public auction, as if he were a criminal, a person who led a criminal association and who tried to defraud the public interest at the end of his term, in collusion with the defendants, when the court has already confirmed that there was never a criminal association, ”he said.
For Sérgio Raimundo, the way things are presented in court "so lightly, he considered," it is almost to admit that then President José Eduardo dos Santos was the leader of a criminal organization ".
The lawyer stated that the then head of state had the competence to order the operation, which culminated in the transfer of the 500 million dollars, meanwhile, recovered by the state.
"The accusation itself at no time says that the end was illicit and clearly says it was for the creation of a strategic development fund for the country," he stressed.
According to the lawyer, in the context of the assessment of the merits or the demerit of the decision, the Constitution itself says that there is no criminal liability.
“The demerit of 'per si' does not constitute a criminal offense, because if that were the case, no one would accept to be President of the Republic, because when a new incumbent came, if he wanted to reevaluate the actions of the previous incumbent, whatever he thinks is a decision with little merit it would be turned into a criminal case ”, he said.
"They are not going to tell me now that the purchase of those houses in Calumbo, which everyone demonstrated that the value was higher than the market price, we would be saying that there is an illegal act there with the intention of diverting the money", he exemplified, referring the recent purchase by the State, authorized by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, of a housing complex to serve as a pandemic center, worth 25 million dollars.
In this sense, the lawyer drew attention to the care to be taken, so that tomorrow another President in power does not classify that act as illegal.
"We have to be very careful with that, so the Constitution itself seeks, in Article 127, to make this very clear", he stressed.
The trial, which takes place at the Supreme Court, began on December 9, 2019 and is in the final stretch, with the closing session of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the defense of this Teça-feira and the reading of the items for 9 July.
