The Spanish justice opposed on Friday the handing over of the body to the family of the former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died on July 8 in Barcelona, the time to carry out additional analyzes at the autopsy and to identify “the member(s) of the family” to whom the body should be handed over
The High Court of Catalonia “does not agree to make available to the family the body of the former president of Angola, Mr. dos Santos”, he announced in a short press release.
“Although the preliminary autopsy report indicates that the death of Mr. dos Santos is natural, the magistrate gave his agreement for additional analyzes, given that a complaint had been filed for possible threats to this person”, the statement continues.
One of his daughters, Tchizé dos Santos, had indeed filed a complaint in Spain a few days before his death for “attempted homicide”. She accuses her father’s personal doctor and his last wife, Ana Paula, of being responsible for the deterioration of her health.
It was also she who had requested an autopsy, judging the death of her father “suspicious”.
She is also opposed to the return of her father’s body to Angola. He wanted “to be buried in privacy in Spain”, where he had been living since 2019, and not in his country “with a national funeral that could favor the current government” of President Joao Lourenço, according to a statement from his lawyers.
The preliminary results of the autopsy reported a “natural death”, with problems of “heart failure” and “lung superinfection”, according to a source familiar with the matter.
But the court warned that the handover of the body will not take place “until the results of the analyzes requested have been obtained and until the family member or members to whom the body is to be handed over have been identified”.
“The magistrate considers that the investigation takes precedence over the right of the direct family to recover the body”, he added, specifying that the forensic institute had been officially asked to keep the body.
Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who led Angola with an iron fist from 1979 to 2017, died at the age of 79 in a clinic in Barcelona, where he had been hospitalized after suffering cardiac arrest on June 23.
His placement in intensive care revealed the strong tensions existing within the dos Santos family, in particular between his last wife Ana Paula and his 44-year-old daughter Tchizé dos Santos.
Dolphin of dos Santos, Joao Lourenço had surprised by launching as soon as he came to power a vast campaign against corruption targeting the family of his predecessor.