Luanda, June 30, 2025 (Lusa) - The defence lawyers of the Angolan generals claim that the legal proceedings against Leopoldino do Nascimento (“Dino”) and Hélder Vieira Dias Júnior (“Kopelipa”) originated from a “misunderstanding” related to the land on which CIF Angola’s properties were built in Luanda.
The issue concerns buildings in the Vida Pacífica urbanisation (Zango/Viana), allegedly referred to as part of the state land reserve and constructed with public funds, a characterisation the defence challenges.
The then Minister of Spatial Planning and Housing and current Minister of the Environment, Ana Paula Chantre Luna de Carvalho, filed the complaint that led to the proceedings in 2020 with the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
According to documentation accessed by Lusa, the minister reported to Angola's President, João Lourenço, a “presumed usurpation” of housing units built under the National Urban Planning and Housing Programme (PNUH) with public funds on state-owned land.
According to this communication, CIF built 47 buildings in Vida Pacífica, of which SONIP (a Sonangol group company) coordinated the occupation of 24, and the remaining 23 were designated for “technical and administrative restructuring”.
The minister also warned that authorities had found 837 houses and 271 buildings in different stages of construction, with work paused, and pointed out that CIF had requested the granting of surface rights ‘a posteriori’ on public land.
The same note indicated that the companies involved secured the necessary licences after completing the construction and that these companies had also participated in the construction of state-owned properties. Based on these details, the government decided to use legal mechanisms to recover the assets and return them to the state.
However, a source close to the generals’ defence claims that there was “a mistake”, arguing that the properties referred to in the minister’s complaint have a different location from those built by CIF.
“Even if this were the case, the rights already acquired by CIF would prevail,” claimed the same source, according to which, so far, witnesses have not corroborated the thesis that these buildings are public.
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office has yet to present any documentary or other evidence to this effect to the proceedings,” he added.
The judge in the case decided to keep the trial of the generals, which has been ongoing since March 2024, behind closed doors and allowed journalists to attend only after the evidence-gathering phase.
The Supreme Court heard the case, taking testimony until 27 June from various figures linked to the state and the former structure of Sonangol and the Ministry of Housing, including Ana Paula Chantre Luna de Carvalho, Carlos Feijó (lawyer and former Minister of State and Chief of Staff to José Eduardo dos Santos), Ernesto Garcia (former director of the Technical Unit for Private Investment, which supervised and coordinated major investment projects in the government of José Eduardo dos Santos) and Francisco de Lemos José Maria (former chairman of the Board of Directors of Sonangol, appointed after the departure of Manuel Vicente), among others.
The hearings take place at a rate of three sessions per week, and the court has scheduled a new session for today.
Prosecutors have charged Dino and Kopelipa, both figures close to former President José Eduardo dos Santos, with crimes such as embezzlement, influence peddling and money laundering, among others.
“Kopelipa,” former head of the Angolan secret service, “Dino,” and five other defendants, including three companies, are on trial in a case involving the Angolan subsidiary of China International Fund (CIF), Plansmart International Limited and Utter Right International Limited, allegedly used by the defendants to set up a scheme that diverted millions of dollars from the Angolan state, involving a financing agreement between Angola and China to support national reconstruction after the civil war that ended in 2002.
In 2020, the two former strongmen of José Eduardo dos Santos had to hand over to the state several companies and buildings owned by CIF and Cochan, S.A., including cement and beer factories, a supermarket chain and residential buildings.
The list of defendants includes neither Manuel Vicente, the former Vice-President of Angola and former leader of Sonangol, nor his name among the more than 30 witnesses, although the case mentions him in connection with his links to CIF.
RCR/ADB // ADB.
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