Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos demands pardon after death of father

Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos has requested a pardon to dismiss all criminal accusations brought against her and other members of the dos Santos family.

The declaration by the Angolan billionaire, which a spokesman in Lisbon confirmed on Tuesday, came over two weeks after her father, former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Angola for nearly four decades between 1979 and 2017, was confirmed dead.

In return, Isabel dos Santos and the other dos Santos family members will enable the return of their father’s body for a state funeral in Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer, following the general election on Aug. 24.

The dos Santos family also demanded an apology for the treatment of the former leader when he voluntarily left his position as president in 2017 due to health reasons and was succeeded by his protege, former Defense Minister Joao Lourenco.

Lourenco, who succeeded dos Santos in 2017, started a sweeping anti-corruption campaign and a massive purging of the dos Santos administration. Meanwhile, the opposition has widely asserted that the anti-corruption campaign is politically motivated.

Recently, the Supreme Court of Angola sentenced dos Santos’s son, Jose Filomeno dos Santos, and three other defendants to prison on graft charges totaling more than $500 million last year.

Isabel dos Santos, who was long considered Africa’s wealthiest woman, with a net worth of $3.5 billion in 2013, was ordered to hand over to Angola shares in the Portuguese oil company Galp Energia worth $500 million.

The government froze her accounts and assets in Angola and Portugal, and the United States also sanctioned her for involvement in corruption and the misappropriation of public funds for personal benefit while she was chairwoman of Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol.