Angolan president pardons predecessor’s son jailed for corruption

Angolan President Joao Lourenco has pardoned some 50 prisoners, including the son of his predecessor Jose Eduardo dos Santos who was serving a five-year jail term for embezzlement.

A presidential decree posted on Facebook on Wednesday cited “good behaviour” and the “absence of social danger” in granting freedom to the convicts.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died in 2022, ruled energy-rich Angola for 38 years until 2017. His son Jose Filomeno dos Santos, 46, had been convicted for crimes including embezzlement and influence trafficking.

He was jailed for fraud in 2020 after $500 million was transferred from the national bank of Angola to an account in the UK. Three others, including the ex-governor of Angola’s national bank, were sentenced.

It was Angola’s first big corruption conviction since power changed hands.

The pardon was linked to the 50th anniversary of Angola’s independence from Portugal next year, the decree said, adding it was aimed at promoting a “climate of harmony, leniency, indulgence, concord and fraternity”.

In November, the UK government sanctioned Angola’s Isabel dos Santos, the billionaire businesswoman and daughter of Dos Santos, as part of a new anti-corruption drive.

Isabel Dos Santos had “systematically abused her positions at state-run companies to embezzle at least £350 million ($443 million), depriving Angola of resources and funding for much-needed development,” London said at the time.

Considered Africa’s richest woman, she is currently wanted by Angolan authorities investigating alleged illegalities in the management of national oil company Sonangol between 2016 and 2017.

The Dos Santos family says they are being subjected to a witch hunt.