Angolan court orders seizure of Isabel dos Santos’s assets

Lisbon  — Angola’s Supreme Court has ordered the “preventive” seizure of assets worth about $1bn held by Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of the country’s former president, Portugal’s Lusa news agency said on Tuesday.

The court document cited by Lusa, dated December 19, said authorities had evidence of alleged embezzlement and money laundering and ordered the seizure of the money dos Santos holds in “all banking institutions”.

The seizure also includes 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, Lusa 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.

Reuters