Africa-Press – Angola. The District Court of Lubango started on Tuesday the trial of the director of Health in Huíla and the former head of the department of Public Health and Control of Endemic Diseases, accused by the Public Ministry of embezzlement, forgery of documents and money laundering , in the period from 2020 to 2021.
The trial session initially scheduled for the first half of March, had been postponed by the District Court of Lubango, for reasons as yet unknown. from the same institution and a former manager of the Hotel INFOTUR.
This is the first hearing in the evidence production phase of the process registered under No. 910/2021-C, in which the main defendant is José Hélio Gabriel Chiangalala, former head of the Department of Public Health and Control of Endemic Diseases in Huíla, who it is being chaired by the judge, Anacleto Kambuta.
The arrest of Hélio Chiangalala, who managed public affairs for two years, took place on January 21, 2021, at the same time as the diagnostic and therapeutic technician, Rosa Chilepa, because at stake is supposedly the embezzlement of three million kwanzas, from a global amount of 27 million made available by the National Directorate of Public Health.
That amount was earmarked for the payment of a heading for the rental of five vehicles, as part of the training of Statistics technicians in that Department, on the insertion of data in the digital platform called DHIS2, as a result of an international donation received in November 2020.
The training was carried out, but part of the amount made available was given an uncertain destination, which gave rise to the opening of a criminal process, where initially, the co-defendant Luciana Guimarães (director), at the time of the facts, was discarded due to insufficient evidence. .
During the investigation, the Public Ministry came to the conclusion that there are indications of participation in the crime, since, in addition to being the director of Health, she was the coordinator of the training course.
According to the prosecution’s accusation, under no 976/PGRH/2021, 2nd D, the person responsible is constituted as a defendant for allegedly having received 331 thousand 250 Kz, an amount that she claimed to have been an allowance.
It should be noted that the more than three million in question is the remainder of the 27 million and were at the Provincial Department of Public Health and Control of Endemic Diseases and that Hélio Chiangalala stated, in the judgment seat, that he had requested, as a loan, to deal with a personal problem the amount of one million 310 kz, given as diverted.
At the end of the first hearing session which lasted 11 uninterrupted hours, Luciana Guimarães’ lawyer, José Carlos, said that despite the delay it was a hard day’s work.
He underlined that the day was “quite productive”, with the four defendants having been heard and more evidence produced, so that depending on this feat, justice will be done. Wednesday, the four deponents enrolled in the process will be heard, to help the Court better understand the complexity of the situation.
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