Angola Court Overturns Son's Embezzlement Conviction

Angola's constitutional court quashed a five-year sentence that had been handed to the son of ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos for embezzlement.

Judges of the top court in the capital Luanda declared the 2020 conviction of Jose Filomeno dos Santos, 46, who has been serving his sentence under house arrest, void as "unconstitutional".

The verdict breached "the principles of legality, adversarial proceedings, a fair and consistent judgment and the rights of the defense", they wrote.

The decision represents a major victory for the family of the late leader, which has long complained of being the target of a politically motivated campaign.

It was not immediately clear whether the young dos Santos, nicknamed "Zenu", would walk free or a new trial will be held.

Zenu was one of the first members of the former presidential family to be prosecuted as part of an anti-graft campaign led by President Joao Lourenco since he came to power in 2017.

In 2019 he was accused of trying to embezzle up to $1.5 billion from the oil-rich country's sovereign wealth fund, which he oversaw from 2013 to 2018.

He was then charged with stealing $500 million from the fund and transferring it to a foreign bank account.

In 2020, Zenu and three co-defendants, including the former governor of the national bank of Angola (BNA), Valter Filipe da Silva, were sentenced to between five and eight years in prison for fraud, embezzlement and influence peddling.

But the constitutional court found that, among other issues, lower judges had not taken into proper account evidence brought by the defense, including a letter penned by the ex-president.

Under dos Santos's 38-year rule, Angola became one of Africa's top crude producers. But while his family reaped the benefits of the wealth, most of the country's 33 million people were left in poverty.