In the appeal allegations, to which Lusa agency had access this Wednesday, the magistrate of the Public Prosecutor's Office manifested his disagreement with the ruling of August 14, which sentenced the former governor of BNA Valter Filipe to eight years in prison and the former director of management of BNA António Samalia Bule Manuel to five years, both for the crimes of embezzlement and fraud for defrauding.
In the process, the Angolan businessman Jorge Gaudens Sebastião, to six years, and the former president of the Sovereign Fund of Angola José Filomeno dos Santos, to five years, both for the crimes of embezzlement for defrauding and influence traffic, absolving all of the crime of money laundering.
Without advancing proposals to increase punishments, the Public Prosecutor argued that the penalties should be aggravated, justifying with "the coldness of the action to prepare for the enormous damage caused to the Angolan State.
Admitting that this will also be the understanding of the Supreme Court, the magistrate maintains that it will "take better care to analyze the appealed decision, increasing the penalties applied to all defendants, in view of the general disapproval of their illegal conduct, giving them, on the other hand, the possibility of reflecting on the seriousness of these conducts and repent, a fact not demonstrated throughout the process and, especially, at the trial hearing.
For the Public Prosecutor's Office, it is necessary for the defendants to understand that, "taking into account the functions they occupied, by punishing their conduct, the State intended not only to ensure the probity and fidelity of public officials and managers, in order to guarantee the smooth running, legality and impartiality of the public administration", but also to "protect legal assets" enshrined in the country's Constitution and, 'in casu', the property of the community".
The defendants were convicted on August 14, but remain at liberty pending a response to the appeal filed by the defense in the plenary of the Supreme Court.
The judgment also condemned the defendants to pay a judicial fee of 300,000 kwanzas each and to pay compensation to the State, while José Filomeno dos Santos, son of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, will also have to pay a fee of 150,000 kwanzas to his unofficial defender.
All the defendants were also ordered to pay the Angolan state five million kwanzas as moral damages, 8512 million dollars for the damages arising from their actions, expenses with the legal proceedings that took place in London amounting to two million pounds, relating to lawyers' fees, 9000 dollars for airline tickets and more than five million kwanzas in daily allowances.
The case related to an irregular transfer of 500 million dollars, meanwhile recovered by the Angolan state, from Angola's central bank to the account of a foreign private company based in London, with the aim of setting up a strategic investment fund of 30 billion dollars to finance structural projects in the African country.
