During the trial, the former director of the extinct GRECIMA said he paid national and international leaders to speak well about Angola. Rabelais denies that former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos knew about the operations.
The former director of the defunct Office for the Revitalization and Execution of Institutional Communication and Marketing of the Administration (GRECIMA) Manuel Rabelais admitted, during an interrogation before the Supreme Court of Angola this Monday (14.12), that he acquired foreign exchange to serve personal interests.
However, the former Minister of Social Communication and former director of Rádio Nacional de Angola did not confirm the purchase of 98 million euros from the National Bank of Angola (BNA), sold to companies and individuals, according to the case file.
Despite denying such an operation, Manuel Rabelais admits that the amount may refer to “comfort letters” that were sent when he was secretary of the President of the Republic for Institutional Communication and the Press, during the government of former head of state José Eduardo dos Santos.
However, he stressed that the value of these operations would be well below what appears in the prosecution of the Public Ministry. According to Rabelais, the value does not exceed 30 million euros.
The purchase and sale of foreign currency with the addition of a rate above the official value was an alternative to the financial crisis to meet the needs of the old cabinet, justified Manuel Rabelais. The defendant also acknowledged that his advisor Hilário Santos received and deposited money on behalf of GRECIMA.
“Mr. Hilário Santos and I acquired through this mechanism of direct sales of foreign exchange, whether for our personal interests and those of the Government who were looking for us, currencies from GRECIMA”, he said in the interrogation, according to the Novo Jornal de Angola.
Did JES know about the scheme?
Manuel Rabelais also stated that he paid national and international leaders to speak well about Angola. The former GRECIMA director did not, however, want to reveal the names and amounts paid for considering this a matter of state secrecy.
When asked whether former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos knew about the scheme, Rabelais said he never discussed this issue with the former head of state. He added that the BNA was not aware of the sale of the amounts made available, but that it allocated them to the commercial banks to which GRECIMA’s requests were addressed.
Manuel Rabelais is on trial for crimes of embezzlement, money laundering, and violation of the budget execution rules allegedly committed between 2016 and 2017. During this period, he used his powers at GRECIMA to acquire from the BNA foreign currency that was channeled to some banks. commercial.
The trial started last Wednesday (09.12). The alleged acts are subject to a sentence of more than two years in prison. According to the president of the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court of Angola, Daniel Modesto, the judgment of this case may take time. “These crimes are complex. It may take some time for the trial to end, ”he said.
