Autopsy in Spain for ex-Angola leader amid foul play claims

An autopsy has been carried out in Spain on former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died last week in Barcelona, at the request of one of his daughters who suspects foul play, her lawyers said Monday.

The results of the autopsy, which was conducted over the weekend, are not yet available, a spokesperson for Tchize dos Santos’ lawyers said.

A Barcelona court authorised the post-mortem on Friday, the day of his death, a court spokeswoman said.

Dos Santos, who ruled Angola with an iron fist between 1979 and 2017, had lived in Barcelona since April 2019.

The 79-year-old was taken to the hospital and placed in intensive care after suffering a cardiac arrest on June 23.

His 44-year-old daughter — whose full name is Welwitschia dos Santos — swiftly demanded the hospital retain his body “until an appropriate autopsy is carried out”.

She said in a statement on Saturday there were “a series of signs” that her father’s death occurred under “suspicious circumstances”.

Tchize has filed a legal case in Spain against the former Angolan president’s widow, Ana Paula, and his personal physician for “attempted murder”.

The complaint also includes allegations relating to “failure to exercise a duty of care, injury resulting from gross negligence and disclosure of secrets by people close to him,” her lawyers said in a statement on Friday.

Tchize claimed her father and his wife — a former flight attendant 21 years his junior — had been separated for some time, meaning that his spouse had no right to make decisions about his health.

She said her father’s health “seriously deteriorated” after Ana Paula arrived in Barcelona and moved into her father’s home in the Spanish city.

Police confirmed receiving the complaint and said they had opened an inquiry.

Tchize also argues her father wanted to be buried privately in Spain and not in Angola in a state funeral “which could favour the current government” in the former Portuguese colony.

“My father did not want to be buried by Joao Lourenco,” she told CNN Portugal on Monday, calling the current Angolan president “a corrupt dictator”.

Corruption allegations
Angolan Foreign Minister Tete Antonio declined to comment on her accusations on Friday as he left the Barcelona hospital where the former president had been treated.

“We did not come here to deal with these things,” he told reporters.

Born in the slums of Luanda, dos Santos was one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.

Critics say he used his nation’s oil wealth to enrich his family but left his people among the poorest on the planet.

When he stepped down in 2017, dos Santos handed over to former defence minister Lourenco whom he had handpicked to succeed him.

But Lourenco quickly turned on his erstwhile patron, unleashing an anti-corruption drive to recoup the billions he suspected had been embezzled under dos Santos.

Dos Santos’s son Jose Filomeno has been in prison since 2019 on corruption charges.

His eldest daughter Isabel, who was once named by Forbes as Africa’s richest woman, faces a slew of investigations into her multinational business dealings.

Lourenco, who is seeking re-election in August, nonetheless declared a period of national mourning over the death of dos Santos, calling it a “big loss” for Angola.

The authorities on Monday announced the opening of a book of condolences in the capital Luanda to allow Angolans to pay tribute to their former leader.