The current leader of Angola, Joao Lourenco, has pardoned José Filomeno Dos Santos, the son of the former president who was imprisoned for fraud.
Dos Santos was sentenced to five years in prison for fraud in 2020 after $500 million was transferred from Angola’s state bank to a British account.
Several others were also sentenced; among them was the ex-governor of Angola’s national bank.
The case was part of an anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by Lourenco.
The Dos Santos family, meanwhile, alleged that they are the targets of a political witch hunt.
Dos Santos is among some 50 prisoners who have been granted pardons by the president; they are to be freed on January 1st.
A presidential decree issued on social media highlighted the convicts’ “good behavior” and the “absence of social danger” in freeing them.
It said that the move was in connection with the 50th anniversary of Angola’s independence from Portugal next year, and that the pardon aimed to establish a “climate of harmony, leniency and fraternity”.
