Luanda, ANGOLA, December 1 - The Republic of Angola as a Sovereign State will continue defending its citizens and respect the existing bilateral agreement with various countries, so it will survive the current “incomprehensible” crisis with Portugal.,

This was said to the press on Thursday, in Luanda’s 04 de Fevereiro international Airport, by the Angolan Foreign Affairs minister, Manuel Augusto, who added that both countries consider excellent the general political relations they share.

 

However, he said, the two countries also recognise that these friendship ties have been haunted by what the Portuguese people consider to be a judicial issue.

 

The official, who was assessing the 5th Africa/Europe Summit held on November 29-30 in Abidjan, explained that the Judicial is one the three powers of the Portuguese democracy and Angola recognises that fact, but he considered, however, that the Portuguese Judiciary sector has been trying to give the issue a political character, which should not happen.

 

“This case involving Manuel Vicente (former Angolan vice- president) is not treated as mere justice case by the Portuguese, but as political one, the truth is that the process only had legal contours when this citizen became vice president, which constitutes a sovereignty problem for us and lack of respect”, said the diplomat. 

 

According to the minister, Angola considers such fact a State issue, without questioning the validity of the process that could be politically handled with recourse to the existing legal agreement between the two nations, which enables the process transfer of some cases, especially sensible ones like this one.

 

“The Portuguese Attorney’s Office does not believe that Angola is capable of handling this case with rigour, a lack of trust that should not exist, since Portugal could put into question the respectability of the Angolan justice, since a legal agreement has been signed by both, in recognition that the country is a credible partner in this subject” he recalled.

  

According to the Foreign minister, Portugal must understand that it is dealing with a sovereign country that will always defend its citizens as an example of what happened to former football player, Pedro Mantorras, who once was arrested in Portugal over alleged driving without licence, which at that time caused Angola to immediately retaliate.

 

“ To recall, likewise, the situation of the deceased Portuguese freight forwarder and businessman, Eduardo Gonçalves, who while living in Angola had problems with the Portuguese justice, Portugal requested his extradition ( with success) to the Angolan government under the terms of the legal instrument, but such did not happen in Manuel Vicente’s case”, stressed the diplomat. 

 

Beyond this issue and others related to improvement of bilateral relations, the Angolan President, João Lourenço, and the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, met on the fringes of the 5th Summit of Head of State and Government held in Abidja, Cotê d'Ivoire.

 

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