The defense lawyers of the Portuguese-Angolan Carlos São Vicente this week asked to challenge the decision of the Angolan justice to keep the businessman in preventive detention and challenged the freezing of his assets, according to a family statement.
“This week, São Vicente’s lawyers in Angola requested to challenge the decision to maintain the preventive detention coercion measure,” says the family in a statement sent to Lusa.
Particularly concerned is his condition as a chronic patient, suffering from diabetes, among other health complications, “a situation incompatible with the absence of minimum conditions in Viana prison, especially at a time of pandemic”, he adds.
Also according to the same note, this week the defense of Carlos São Vicente challenged the freezing of assets and bank accounts of the businessman and family, “by delivering two exposures to the courts”.
In one of the exhibitions he asks for “the defrosting of goods” and in the other, he asks for “the replacement of the faithful depository of the more than 70 hotels in the AAA Group, requesting that the State General Vault be replaced by the Group’s management”.
It is recalled that 17 hotels in the AAA Group, owned by the Portuguese-Angolan businessman, who were subject to arrest by order of the Angolan justice, were, meanwhile, dedicated to the accommodation of Covid-19 patients, and “are at risk of closure”, the note underlines. .
A situation that, according to the family of Carlos São Vicente “stems from the inability of the Angolan Government to face, through the General State Safes, the needs of suppliers and hotel workers, as well as excessive delays in paying debts to suppliers and overdue wages to workers ”.
In addition, according to the statement, at the same time that the defense in Angola made the aforementioned steps on the freezing of assets in the courts, in Switzerland, Carlos São Vicente’s lawyers “are preparing to appeal to the Supreme Court of the decision of the court in the canton of Genéve, which decided to freeze the US $ 900 million, the result of activity over many years in the insurance sectors for the oil and hotel and real estate sectors ”.
The family of the businessman says that as Christmas approaches, he “intensifies his efforts” to free him from the Viana jail, in Angola, where he has been in preventive detention since September 22 and “without clarifying which the prosecution ”.
Furthermore, he considers that he is being victimized by “persecution” for reasons that he “only sees as political”.
The businessman’s relatives, including his wife, Irene Neto, daughter of the first President of Angola, Agostinho Neto, and his son, Ivo São Vicente, were subject to the freezing of bank accounts and the forfeiture of assets of the AAA Group, one of the largest Angolan business groups, operating in the insurance and hospitality sectors, the statement said.
In October, Angolan judicial authorities refused a request for immediate release (Habeas Corpus) of businessman Carlos São Vicente.
A judgment of the Supreme Court of Luanda, dated October 7, dismissed the request by Habeas Corpus filed for the defense of the businessman “for lack of foundation”, so Carlos São Vicente remained in preventive detention.
The “aspects exposed and which serve as the basis” for the request for immediate release “do not comply with the requirements required by law for its establishment, so the service is not whether it is illegal, effective and current imprisonment, illegality wound ”, considered the judges who signed the decision.
The request “has as its object the applicant’s state of health” and the provision of habeas corpus has “an extraordinary and expeditious nature”, designed to respond quickly to situations of manifest illegality of imprisonment, refer the magistrates.
However, and the facts adduced by the applicant “are not in themselves sufficient evidence for the application to be feasible, and the Prison Institution is responsible for ensuring that conditions are adequate for your health”, concluded the judges at the time.
The businessman Carlos São Vicente was arrested on September 22, in preventive detention, on suspicion of crimes of embezzlement and money laundering, among others.
Angolan judicial authorities ordered the seizure of several buildings belonging to the AAA group, owned by businessman Carlos São Vicente, who is also being investigated in Switzerland for embezzlement and money laundering.
The PGR National Asset Recovery Service issued a statement announcing the seizure of the AAA buildings, the IU and IKA hotels, located throughout the country, and the IRCA building, at Rua Amílcar Cabral, in Luanda.
After the buildings, the National Asset Recovery Service of PGR announced the seizure of the 49% minority shareholding in AAA Ativos in Standard Bank Angola, where the businessman was a non-executive director, having asked for the suspension of functions for the duration of the process.
The PGR also requested the freezing of accounts and seizure of assets by Irene Neto, daughter of the first Angolan President, Agostinho Neto, and the businessman’s wife.
