According to a press release from the Supreme Court, this is the beginning of the contradictory instruction requested by Kopelipa as part of the criminal investigation process.
The contradictory investigation, an optional phase in which both the prosecution and the defense intervene directly as procedural parties and in which the defendants can also present evidence and arguments to the judge, will be led by Nazaré Pascoal.
In this case, the lawyer Fernando Gomes dos Santos and the companies Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited are also defendants.
The general, a former trusted man of the former head of state, José Eduardo dos Santos (now deceased), was named a defendant, like general Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento "Dino", in 2020, in a process that also involves the company CIF - China International Fund Angola, in addition to Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right Internacional Limited, based in the British Virgin Islands.
According to the indictment, to which Lusa had access, the three companies were part of a scheme set up by the defendants, which harmed the Angolan State by several million dollars.
According to the text of the indictment, it all started with the financing agreement signed in 2003 between the Angolan State and the People's Republic of China, from which, from 2004 onwards, several credit lines emerged with EximBank, CCBB-Banco de Desenvolvimento of China and with Sinosure - Export Credit Insurance Agency.
The scheme that harmed the Angolan State was apparently set up when 'Kopelipa' was appointed by then President José Eduardo dos Santos as head of the National Reconstruction Office.
According to the indictment, Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior and Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento, together with two other defendants in the case, "concertedly devised a plan to deceive the Angolan State and, under the pretext of restructuring, appropriated" properties built with public funds and "marketed them as if they were their own".
"The defendant Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior knew that the National Reconstruction Office, which he headed, as director, was a public body, whose revenues attributed to him were also public and intended for the reconstruction of the country (...). He also knew that the aforementioned Office was not designed to grant loans, especially to foreign companies, with whom it signed a foreign investment agreement on behalf of the Angolan State", the document states.
But, "still, he did not shy away from, in 2008, granting a loan" worth 150 million dollars "to the company China Sonangol International Limited".
Furthermore, 'Kopelipa" "produced a document, the content of which he always knew was not true", which "convinced the President of the Republic" to allow the entry of goods with payment of taxes 'a posteriori' into the country, "which was only possible due to the position he occupied and which he asserted himself".
The Public Prosecutor's Office concludes that the defendants in that case used "the companies Cif China International Fund Angola, Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited as vehicles to commit crimes".
General "Kopelipa" was head of José Eduardo dos Santos' Military House and General "Dino" was head of communications in the previous regime.
CIF Limited is a private Chinese company with headquarters in Hong Kong and an office in Beijing, founded in 2003 to finance national reconstruction and infrastructure development projects in developing countries, mainly in Africa.
According to a report by the British think tank Chatham House, published in 2009, the CIF had links to China Angola Oil Stock Holding Ltd, which would trade in Angolan oil through China Sonangol International Holding, linked to Manuel Vicente, former president of the oil company. Angolan state-owned company and former Vice-President of Angola.
