JOHANNESBURG — The Angolan authorities are looking for the arrest of Isabel dos Santos, a former president’s daughter who was as soon as thought-about Africa’s wealthiest lady, on prices that she enriched herself with state assets, the nation’s lawyer basic has instructed a state-run information company.
The lawyer basic, Hélder Pitta Grós, instructed the outlet, Angop, on Monday that Angola was looking for the arrest of Ms. dos Santos, the previous head of the state-owned oil firm, by means of Interpol, after failing to find her and getting no response from her or her attorneys to a number of requests that she undergo questioning.
Interpol points “purple notices,” that are requests to legislation enforcement companies worldwide to seek out and detain an individual. As of Tuesday morning, no such discover for Ms. dos Santos was listed in Interpol’s on-line database.
The trouble to arrest Ms. dos Santos comes after years of investigations by the Angolan authorities into the big fortune she amassed whereas her father, José Eduardo dos Santos, who died in July, was president.
Her father’s 38-year tenure in workplace was marked by an inundation of corruption accusations; he stepped down in 2017, and his handpicked successor, João Lourenço, turned president.
Mr. Lourenço vowed to combat graft, and his authorities quickly took intention at his predecessor’s kids. José Filomeno dos Santos, the previous president’s son, was sentenced in 2020 to 5 years in jail for embezzling $500 million from Angola’s sovereign fund. (He stays free whereas the case is being appealed.)
Ms. dos Santos has been below intense scrutiny for years from the lawyer basic’s workplace in Angola, an oil-rich nation in southern Africa the place about half of the inhabitants lives on lower than $1.90 a day.
In January 2020, Mr. Pitta Grós stated that Ms. dos Santos could be charged with “cash laundering, affect peddling, dangerous administration” and “forgery of paperwork, amongst different financial crimes” that he stated she dedicated whereas working Sonangol, the state-owned oil firm.
The investigation dragged, partially as a result of Ms. dos Santos didn’t reside in Angola, Mr. Pitta Grós has stated. She has residences in London and in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, amongst different locations.
In his remarks to Angop on Monday, Mr. Pitta Grós stated that Ms. dos Santos had not responded to letters asking her to undergo questioning, which had been despatched to her attorneys and to her properties in Angola’s capital, Luanda, and within the Netherlands. Her present whereabouts is unknown, he stated.
Reached by phone this month, Ms. dos Santos stated she had at all times made herself out there to the authorities. She stated that she and her authorized workforce had not obtained any discover for her arrest and couldn’t discover one for her in Interpol’s database.
“My tackle is understood, my whereabouts are recognized,” she stated, including that she was presently dwelling in London. “I’m not a fugitive. I’m not hiding from anybody,” she added.
If a discover or warrant had been issued, she stated, she could be prepared to go to courtroom to offer proof that she had by no means stolen state assets and that her firms had been constructed legitimately and financed by banks.
She stated the investigations and accusations in opposition to her had been “political persecution” by Mr. Lourenço. “He sees me as a political menace and a possible presidential candidate,” she stated.
At the same time as accusations of corruption and nepotism tarnished the fame of Ms. dos Santos’s father, his identify carried appreciable weight due to his background within the Angolan resistance to colonial rule.
Some analysts noticed his demise in July as an opportunity for his occasion, the In style Motion for the Liberation of Angola, or M.P.L.A., to parlay nostalgia surrounding his legacy into assist within the nationwide election, held in August.
Certainly, the occasion did eke out a victory, guaranteeing Mr. Lourenço a second time period in workplace. However the M.P.L.A. had its worst displaying ever, with many citizens dissatisfied by persevering with financial woes and cynical about Mr. Lourenço’s anticorruption marketing campaign.
Ms. dos Santos’s wealth was as soon as estimated at $3.5 billion by Forbes, which known as her the richest lady in Africa. However lots of her belongings internationally, together with in Portugal and the Netherlands, have since been frozen due to the corruption accusations hanging over her. Forbes has estimated that she is now not a billionaire.
Gilberto Neto contributed reporting from Luanda, Angola.