Africa-Press – Angola. One thousand and 347 criminal cases were legalized in 2023, in the province of Cuanza Norte, by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), 225 more than in the previous year.
The data was released this Wednesday, in Ndalatando, in statements, by the deputy attorney general of the Republic in Cuanza-Norte, Maria Pedro.
It clarified that two thousand and 299 people, accused of various crimes, including 17 public managers, were accused in the same year, 492 more compared to the previous period.
Maria Pedro reported that of these criminal cases, 946 were sent to trial, with emphasis on 832 common, 92 summary and 22 special or abbreviated cases.
The 17 cases, he highlighted, involving public managers have already been the subject of accusations by the Public Prosecutor’s Office but have not yet gone to trial, given the complexity of their nature, which requires extensive investigation work.
Some, he continued, are awaiting judgment and others for the decision on the appeals lodged are still in the investigation phase, in the higher courts.
“The cases that went to court merited the prosecution of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and are in the judicial phase, but they have not yet been judged and it is no longer the responsibility of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to go after the judge to find out why he did not judge”, he stated.
He explained that the current Penal Code grants defendants the right to file appeals even during the pre-trial phases.
Once filed before trial, the cases go to the higher courts for consideration and decision, suspending their progress and taking their legal time.
He highlighted that in the last two years, the PGR in Cuanza-Norte did not recover assets created with public funds and that this does not mean the absence of misappropriation from the treasury.
The judge expressed fears that, as a result of new tactics, defendants involved in economic crimes are not transforming the results of the occupation into personal assets.
This fact, he added, is making it difficult to discover and recover assets created with State funds.
“In the past, there was recovery, because there were values in the accounts of those involved and there was a confession that allowed the recovery of vehicles and monetary values, but now the defendants have no values in their accounts”, he stated.
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