By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Supreme Court of Angola has ordered the “preventive” seizure of assets worth around $1 billion held by Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the southern African country’s former President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Portugal’s news agency reports.
Authorities had evidence of alleged embezzlement and money laundering, and ordered the seizure of the money dos Santos holds in “all banking institutions”, the agency said citing a court document dated Dec. 19.
Also to be forfeited include all of dos Santos’s shares in Angolan company Embalvidro, as well as 100% of shares in Cape Verde’s telecom company Unitel T+ and Unitel STP in Sao Tome e Principe, according to Lusa.
A total of 70% of her shares in Mozambique’s telecom MStar and Upstar Comunicacoes should be seized too, the news agency had said.
Dos Santos has faced corruption accusations for years. In 2019, Angola’s Supreme Court ordered the seizure of her assets for allegedly steering state funds to companies in which she held stakes during her father’s presidency, including oil giant Sonangol.
Dos Santos’s father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, died in July. He ruled Angola for almost four decades until 2017.
A spokesperson for dos Santos did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and told CNN Portugal in November that the courts in Angola were “not independent” and that judges there were “used to fulfil a political agenda”.
The order comes after global police agency Interpol issued a red notice for dos Santos last month, asking global law enforcement authorities to locate and provisionally arrest her.
