The Angolan Justice Minister says he is stunned over the disrespect shown to by Portugal’s Public Prosecutor's Office - in fact he is ‘astonished’ that the Portuguese Public Prosecutor's Office had moved on in its investigation involving the Angolan Vice President, Manuel Vicente, (pictured left) without hanging around for Angola to decide whether to help or not.
"I am astonished and even disbelieving in this situation that demonstrates a certain disrespect for our judicial authorities, and in particular for the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Angola," said Rui Mangueira, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights of a country that demonstrates little of either.
Portugal’s Public Prosecutor's Office sent details of Operation Fizz to the Criminal Investigation Court, although Manuel Vicente had not formally been notified of the indictment.
Operation Fizz involved the vice president of the Republic of Angola who also was the president of Angola’s State oil company Sonangol. Vicente is suspected of bribing Orlando Figueira to drop a criminal case when he was a prosecutor at Portugal’s Central Criminal Investigation Department.
"This situation, if it is true, is a matter of great gravity and will certainly lead us to make an assessment and appreciation of all the work that must be done under the terms of the agreement for judicial cooperation between the two countries,” said Mangueira, clearly in no hurry.
The decision by the Central Criminal Investigation Department to push the case forward has annoyed the Angolans as they say they have had little time to respond to the letter rogatory that named the Angolan Vice President.
The letter asked the Angolan’s to find Vincente and notify him of the charges against him.
The Attorney General of Angola decided to request an opinion from the Angolan Constitutional Court on the matter, which inevitably delayed matters.
Mangueira claims that "The Portuguese Central Criminal Investigation Department decided to send the case for investigation, without taking into consideration that our judicial authorities are working to respond to the letter rogatory that was sent requesting some procedures. These procedures are being dealt with by the Attorney General's Office which requested an opinion from the Constitutional Court, and as a result the process is being handled and prepared for this purpose."
The Portuguese judicial authorities want Vincente to stand trial but, given his diplomatic immunity, which may or not cover him for bribery, the Angolan authorities decided to request an opinion from its Constitutional Court.
The Portuguese authorities, suspecting its letter rogatory was being ignored, pushed the case forward without waiting for further excuses from the Angolans.
"All the requests made under the letter rogatory will have an answer in due time, inasmuch as the Attorney General's Office has requested this opinion from the Constitutional Court, and we will then expect the Constitutional Court to give this response in a timely manner," blathered Manghueira who is fully aware of the details of the case in which Vincente arranged the payment of €760,000 to Orlando Figueira for dropping two money laundering cases involving the cash purchase of expensive real estate in Portugal.
The original case against Vincente was for embezzlement and money laundering when he was head of Angolan State-owned oil company, Sonagol.
That investigation, halted in 2012, had been looking into the source of the money used by Vincente to buy Lisbon luxury property. Manuel Vicente stands accused of active corruption in an aggravated form, money laundering and the falsification of documents.
The former Public Prosecutor, Orlando Figueira, is accused of passive corruption, money laundering and falsification of documents.
The Angolans are accused of deliberately delaying its part in ensuring Vincente answers questions under oath and faces trial.
In February, 2017 the Angolan government, under the control of lifetime dictator José Eduardo dos Santos, chipped in with an opinion that Vicente is completely innocent of the charges, with un-named State officials describing all such charges as “neo-colonialism” and “revenge by the former colonial master.”
Critics of Angola’s government says that billions in oil revenue has gone into the bank accounts of the president, his family and his aides, Manuel Vincente being one of them.
