The defense lawyer, Sérgio Raimundo, said in statements to Angolan public radio that a ruling by the plenary of the Supreme Military Court to the appeal filed at the time lowered the sentence from three to two years.
The former head of the Military Intelligence and Security Service, General "Zé Maria" was convicted in November 2019 for the misappropriation of documents, but the defense appealed the sentence.
"They lowered the sentence from three to two years and since he was under house arrest, that time they decreed [court] the release and declared the sentence expiated," said the lawyer.
Sergio Raimundo considered the possibility of filing an extraordinary appeal of unconstitutionality, should his constituent agree with the intention.
"In any case, although we, as lawyers, always want to hear the opinion of our represented party, we understand that there are still reasons for us to eventually file an extraordinary appeal of unconstitutionality. If our constituent acquiesces we will go ahead with the unconstitutionality appeal," he pointed out.
In 2019, the Supreme Military Court of Angola proved that General António José Maria misplaced documents containing military information about the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, and sentenced him to three years in prison.
At issue was the possession of documentation on the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, which António José Maria took home when he was dismissed from his post in the secretariat in 2017.
The return of the documentation - unclassified, but of a military nature - was demanded of him by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, as commander in chief of the Armed Forces, and the documents were recovered after searches.