By John Ikani
The dispute over conducting a state burial for former Angolan President, José Eduardo dos Santos, has taken a new twist with the Government of Angola hiring a law firm to represent its interests.
The firm will also represent the interests of the deceased’s widow, Ana Paula dos Santos, who like the Government, wants the former President to be buried in Angola.
In sharp contrast, the older children of the former President want to have custody of the body and hold a burial in Spain.
Jose dos Santos died on 8 July at a hospital in Barcelona, Spain, after ruling Angola for 38 years until his retirement in 2017.
Local media said efforts by the Government and the family of the late leader to reach an agreement on funeral arrangements have failed.
The family, led by his sons, rejected the plan, saying their patriarch wished to be laid to rest in Barcelona for undisclosed reasons. They demanded that their father’s wishes be respected.
A Spanish court is set to rule on the custody of the body by the end of this week.
It would be recalled that a few days ago, cases of attempted murder and gross negligence were opened in Spain against Dos Santos’ wife and his Angolan physician.
The widow, Ana Paula dos Santos, deserted her husband immediately after he stepped down five years ago.
When Dos Santos, who has been in Spain since 2019, briefly returned to Angola last year, he allegedly refused to see his estranged wife.
However, she turned up in Barcelona recently to take care of her infirm husband.
Following Dos Santos’s death, one of his daughters Tchize, went to court in Spain demanding that her father’s body not be handed to the Angolan authorities until a thorough postmortem examination is conducted due to alleged “suspicious circumstances of his death.”
She said political enemies did not want him to back the opposition in forthcoming Angolan elections.
On Monday, a Spanish court ruled that an autopsy be performed on the body of Angola’s former President.
