According to the Novo Jornal, Manuel Rabelais explained, on this 4th day of interrogation, that the delivery of the dozens of properties that he owned occurred after a negotiation process with the PGR SENRA.
The former minister of Social Communication and director of Angola National Radio forwarded this information to the court after being questioned by the judges as to why he denied it to the Public Ministry (MP) who had returned to the State several properties in his possession.
And he denied the statements by the MP representative, according to which he took money from the state for his personal benefit and which he has now returned.
“Is not it. What happened was a negotiation with the National Asset Recovery Service regarding the nature of these services in which we reached an agreement ”, said the defendant, without explaining the difference between the return and the result of the negotiation.
At the insistence of the Court, having been asked if he had then made an offer to the State, Manuel Rabelais replied that he had not, noting that everything was done on the basis of an asset recovery agreement.
Asked why he made this agreement, he replied that it was based on a legal provision of this institution, but he did not say and was not asked the nature of the reason for the delivery to the State of the referred goods.
Manuel Rabelais also reiterated, in the discussion and judgment session on Wednesday, that 15 million euros were transferred abroad, for the benefit of the television channel Euronews, of the consulting and communication companies BANCLAN, RABLAN and Zilford, the latter that he is one of the partners, arguing that they went to pay for services rendered to GRECIMA.
The defendant surprised everyone in the trial room when he stated that, during the time he was leading GRECIMA, he never received a salary but that he benefited from master’s degrees abroad, as well as many journalists and opinion leaders.
Manuel Rabelais also said that he did not remember when asked by the Court, what his monthly salary was as a secretary for institutional communication of the Presidency of the Republic.
“GRECIMA had only two employees, one of them myself. The rest were casual collaborators, ”said the defendant.
Asking whether the defendant Hilário Santos will also be moving GRECIMA values, Manuel Rabelais said no, saying that his assistant was only following his orders as director.
Asked if, after GRECIMA was extinguished, defendant Hilário Santos lost documents from the institution, Manuel Rabelais replied that he had not having said that GRECIMA’s bank accounts were blocked before the institution was even dissolved by President João Lourenço in October 2017.
The former Minister of Social Communication and director-general of Angola National Radio, who began to stand trial on the 9th, is accused of crimes of embezzlement, violation of the rules of execution of the plan, and budget and money laundering.
This Wednesday, 16, the presiding judge of the case Daniel Modesto, suspended the discussion and trial session, scheduling the next session for February 8, 2021, still with the interrogation to Manuel António Rabelais, in the one that will be the last, according to the court.
