Through a statement from his lawyers, Tchizé dos Santos, one of the five children of José Eduardo dos Santos who was disputing custody of the ex-President's body in court, says he had knowledge on Saturday morning, through images broadcast on Angolan public television, that her father's body had been handed over to the widow, Ana Paula dos Santos.
The body was delivered to Ana Paula dos Santos in Barcelona, Spain, where José Eduardo dos Santos died, the body having arrived in Luanda on Saturday for the funeral.
"Because of this situation", Tchizé dos Santos and four of his brothers "could not say goodbye to their father", so the daughter of the former President of Angola says that, "when the incident is clarified, she will assess whether there was a violation of their human rights and those of their brothers", reads the same statement.
Lawyer Carmen Varela, who represents Tchizé dos Santos, had already told Lusa this Saturday that the five oldest children of José Eduardo dos Santos were unaware that their father's body had already been handed over to the widow, and is now considering filing a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights.
Tchizé dos Santos and the brothers had appealed Wednesday's decision by the Barcelona court to hand over the body to Ana Paula dos Santos and allow transfer to Angola.
According to Tchizé dos Santos' lawyers, although one appeal was rejected and a second did not have suspensive effects on that court decision, a response to the request for a funeral in Barcelona was pending, to allow the presence of all the former's children President, since the five eldest mentioned that they cannot go to Angola because they consider that it represents a risk to their lives.
In the statement released on Saturday by Tchzié dos Santos' lawyers, it is said that the former president's widow transferred the body to Angola without answering this question from the court about the possibility of the funeral being in Barcelona.
On social media, Tchizé dos Santos, after learning that his father's body was on its way to Angola, appealed to the Angolans to vote in the presidential elections of 24 August for the candidate Adalberto da Costa Júnior, from UNITA, in the opposition, for this purpose allow "in fact" a "tribute by the State" to José Eduardo dos Santos.
Tchizé dos Santos calls for a funeral "organized in due course, as is being done by Japan, which predicted and announced more than two and a half months for the organization of the state funeral of its former prime minister [Shinzo Abe], who died on the same day as JES [José Eduardo dos Santos]".
"In this type of funeral, there must be conditions for the participation of his entire family, heads of state from all over the world, of whom several have already publicly expressed their intention to pay a last tribute to dos Santos and this is what Angolans of good we really deserve and want faith and not the global shame to which the head of government of Angola [João Lourenço] exposes us for using the corpse of his predecessor as a tool for political campaigning and/or for covering electoral fraud", added Tchizé dos Santos.
The daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos considers that in the coming days there will be a "funeral-electoral theater", in which "the 'witches' and the 'witch'" will use the body of the former head of state "in a hideous and disgusting way".
Businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, another of José Eduardo dos Santos' daughters, also regretted on Saturday the transfer of her father's body to Angola with a post on social media in which she wrote that she would not be able to take the former President to the "last address" for having "snatched" him from their arms.
Two factions of the dos Santos family disputed, in the Family Court of the Civil Court of Catalonia, who would have custody of the body of José Eduardo dos Santos.
On one side were Tchizé dos Santos and his older brothers, who were opposed to handing over the remains to the former first lady and were against holding a state funeral before the August 24 elections to avoid political exploitation.
On the other was the widow Ana Paula dos Santos and her three children in common with José Eduardo dos Santos, who also claimed the body and wanted it buried in Angola.
On Wednesday, the court decided to attribute the corpse to the former wife and authorized the transfer to Angola, after concluding definitively that José Eduardo dos Santos died of natural causes.
