Africa-Press – Angola. The Supreme Court (TS) resumes this Monday, in Luanda, the trial of the former Angolan ambassador to Ethiopia, Arcanjo do Nascimento, accused of the crime of embezzlement.
During the first session of the trial, in 2023, the Public Prosecutor’s magistrate, Manuel Dias, when reading the indictment, said that in the interest of improving Angolan diplomatic conditions in Ethiopia, the defendant will have received more than 21 million dollars Americans for the construction of three buildings, to serve as a protocol residence, official residence and chancery.
The prosecution also stated that, on behalf of the Angolan State, powers were delegated to the defendant, by the then Minister of Finance, to conclude a contract with a contractor under Ethiopian law, for the construction of the aforementioned buildings, in 2014.
That year, upon recommendation from the contractor, Arcanjo Maria do Nascimento transferred the amount of five million dollars to the account of a company based in Dubai, corresponding to 25 percent of the initial value of the work, intended for the purchase of construction materials..
Once the works were delayed, for administrative reasons, according to the accusation, due to lack of construction titles, the defendant asked the owner of the building construction company to return the initial payment, promising to return it later.
In turn, the owner of the construction company allowed the defendant, as owner of the work, to contact the company selling materials to transfer the referenced value, which was five million dollars.
The material company, by order of the former permanent representative at the African Union, ended up transferring the amounts to the account of its representative in Angola, and this, in turn, transferred it in favor of the defendant via an Angolan commercial bank..
The prosecution also explained that the former ambassador did not return the amounts transferred to the account of the Angolan Embassy in that country, and that, in this way, they were appropriated.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office also stressed that the ambassador paid the construction company the amount of 9.8 million dollars, with the five million transferred by the company selling materials remaining unpaid.
The defense lawyer, Benja Satula, said, in a TS session, that the fact that the defendant requested the return of the amount is not true and “much less is there any evidence in the file that he gave an order that the said amount was transferred from the account of the company based in Dubai, to the account of its representative”, in Angola.
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