Body of Angolan ex-president to arrive in Luanda on Saturday, government says

The body of Angola’s former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died in Spain in July, was due to arrive in Luanda on Saturday, the Angolan government said in a statement, after weeks of uncertainty over his final resting place. Dos Santos, who stepped down five years ago, died on July 8 at the age of 79 at a clinic in Barcelona, where he was being treated following a prolonged illness.

The Carmen Varela and Molins law firms representing dos Santos’s daughter, Tchize dos Santos, had successfully requested a full autopsy citing alleged “suspicious circumstances” of his death, without providing evidence, and had asked for him to be buried in Barcelona. A Spanish judge ruled on Wednesday that the death was from natural causes, ruling out foul play, and allowed the release and repatriation of his body.

Some fear the return of dos Santos’ body to Angola could fuel tensions before national elections on Aug. 24 that are likely to be the tightest since the first multi-party election there in 1992. The ruling MPLA was dos Santos’ party and is that of President Joao Lourenço, and some critics said the party could use the repatriation of the body to divert people’s attention from the campaign by the main opposition party UNITA and from the electoral process itself.

“It seems like a very transparent manoeuvre to monopolise the media, as usual” Jon Schubert, a political anthropologist and Angola expert at the University of Basel, told Reuters. Most Angolan media is controlled by the state. Critics have voiced concern that the election may be tainted. The Angolan government did not reply to a request about election transparency and fraud. The electoral commission, which is mostly controlled by the MPLA, said the election will be fair and transparent.

Some MPLA supporters said the return of the ex-president’s body to Angola was important to them. Sónia, 41, an MPLA supporter at a big rally in the outskirts of Luanda on Saturday said, : “For us him coming back to Angola before the election shows the importance he had to create peace in our country.”

Although handpicked by dos Santos, Lourenço swiftly moved to investigate allegations of multi-billion dollar corruption during the former president’s era, often involving the dos Santos family. Dos Santos never specifically responded to the allegations that he had allowed corruption to become rampant.

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