José Eduardo Dos Santos, who directed the country with an iron fist from 1979 to 2017, died on July 8, 2022 at the age of 79 in a clinic in Barcelona.
Le Monde with AFP
The body of the former Angolan president José Eduardo Dos Santos will be given to his widow to be repatriated and buried in Angola, decided a court in Barcelona (northeast of Spain) in a judgment made on Wednesday August 17.
The fate of the body of the former Angolan Head of State is at the center of a legal battle between his widow Ana Paula and one of his daughters since his death in Barcelona on July 8, especially in the ‘Optics of the elections scheduled for August 24 in Angola.
In its judgment, dated Tuesday, the Superior Court of Justice in Catalonia notably underlines, in support of its decision, that “the expenses of housing of the deceased were covered by the Angolan government” and that the Former Head of State “had received visits from officials in Angola while he was in Barcelona”.
José Eduardo Dos Santos, who directed Angola in an iron fist from 1979 to 2017, died at the age of 79 in a clinic in Barcelona, where he had been hospitalized after a cardiac arrest June 23.
live family tensions
His intensive care placement had revealed very strong tensions within the Dos Santos family, especially between his last wife, Ana Paula, and her daughter Welwitschea “Tchizé” Dos Santos, 44.
The latter had thus filed a complaint in Spain a few days before the death of her father for “attempted homicide”. She accused her father’s personal doctor and his last wife of being responsible for the deterioration of her state of health and had claimed an autopsy, judging the “suspect” death.
“From their separation in 2017 and until last April, Ana Paula had not visited Barcelona” to the former president, had also assured “Tchizé” Dos Santos in a press release published by his Avocats.
She was opposed to the return of her father’s body to Angola, claiming that he wanted to “be buried in intimacy in Spain”, where he had lived since 2019, and not in his country “with national funerals that might Promote the current government “President Joao Lourenço during the August 24 election, according to a statement from his lawyers.
” Natural death “
At first, Spanish justice had opposed the delivery of the body to the family of the former Angolan president, time to carry out additional analyzes to the autopsy and to identify “the or the family members “to whom to put the body back on. The court confirms that the autopsy concluded that a “natural death”, with problems of “heart failure” and “pulmonary infection”.
The successor of Mr. Dos Santos at the head of Angola, who is a candidate for his re -election in August, had decreed in July seven days of national mourning in tribute to his predecessor. But he had surprised by launching a vast campaign against corruption in power from power in power in power.
Born in a slum in the capital Luanda, José Eduardo Dos Santos was suspected of having diverted the resources of his country by promoting his family and loved ones. Another of her daughters, Isabel, is considered the richest woman in Africa.