"In some legal systems, goods may only be stored six months, nine months," said Attorney this Wednesday, in Luanda, stressing the complexities of investigations that can not be concluded, usually in less than a year.
Eduardo Rodrigues made this Wednesday a balance of the activity of the Senra, provided that this body was created in the dependence of the Attorney General of the Republic, with assignments of asset and financial research during the launch of Pro.react project (supporting the strengthening of National System of Confiscation of Assets in Angola), which has support from the European Union and the United Nations.
The guardian of the Senra highlighted the importance of international cooperation and training in this area to accelerate processes, as in addition to the risk of discreditability, there is also a risk of financial losses, if they were long standing in courts.
Eduarda Rodrigues pointed out that much of the values were expatriate, which places difficulties increased to the Angolan authorities which are forced to use foreign courts to carry out decisions relating to arrest, bank accounts block "with a lot of money" or stakeholders in Portugal , in the UK or Bermuda.
Indicated that, for example, in Singapore, where a process involves almost a billion dollars, the Angolan authorities have already been informed that the arrest of goods will remain only until January and an exceptional request was made to suspend this deadline
Of 50 billion dollars that the Angolan State suffered, about 13 billion dollars were already seized, about half outside Angola and 5.3 billion were already definitively recovered in favor of the State, that is, They are pending judicial decisions.
Eduarda Rodrigues also spoke about the Repatriation Law of Financial Resources, created in 2018, considering that it was "a real amnesty" that the legislator created for citizens who had withdrawn goods from the public to illicitly could give them back, including goods abroad which could, within six months, be repatriated to Angola, with tax exemption, exchange exemption and exemption from criminal responsibility.
"It was a great law that could have had great use, but it was a great opportunity that was lost," said Senra's manager, highlighting that this law also contemplated the possibility of coercive repatriation, predicting that it was necessary to resort to this modality of a recuperative organ.
As regards the management of the assets recovered, he explained that PGR only orders his apprehension or requires arrest, always indicating a faithful depositary, as he is enshrined in the law, except goods that, by his nature, can not be delivered to the safe justice.
The senra was created with a view to identifying, locating and growing financial and non-financial assets that have been illicitly withdrawn from the public to the public, whether in Angola or abroad.
