Luanda - The Attorney General Hélder Pitta Grós, on Wednesday admitted that there were flaws in the "500 million dollar case" trial, due to non-compliance with constitutional principles.
The Constitutional Court (TC) considered unconstitutional the judgment of the Supreme Court (TS) that condemned the former president of the Sovereign Fund of Angola (FSDEA), José Filomeno dos Santos and the former governor of the National Bank of Angola (BNA), Valter Filipe, "over violations to principles of legality, adversarial proceedings and fair trial".
In response to the allegations raised in the extraordinary appeal for unconstitutionality filed by the defendants, the TC plenary considered the decision unconstitutional and ordered that the case be returned to the proper instance, "so that flaws that were found can be removed".
Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the opening of the Conference on Strengthening the Partnership between Angola and the United Nations Organization on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the magistrate stressed that this action by the TC "does not discourage" investigations or the fight against corruption and the recovery of assets.
The Attorney General emphasized that the Constitutional Court's decision "strengthens the way" the Attorney General's Office operates underlining that following the decision, the case will now be submitted to the Supreme Court, where the trial took place, to decide the next steps.
The appellants were sentenced in 2022 to five and eight years in prison for embezzlement, money laundering, fraud and influence peddling, in a case that began in 2019.
The defendants were charged as part of the notorious case of the 500 million dollars illegally transferred abroad from the Angolan central bank in September 2017. MGM/ART/TED/AMP
