Luanda, ANGOLA, June 4 - The Prosecution Department is accusing the former Transports minister, Augusto da Silva Tomás, of engaging in fraudulent artifices with the intent to swindle the Angola State of funds that were afterwards used to make his own companies and other private institutions capitalise.,

According to the accusation, a lot of funds (over a billion dollars) were swindled from the National Shippers Council (CNC) – which operates under the umbrella of the Transports Ministry – and channelled to the mentioned destinations (his own companies and some private institutions).

 

This was presented last Monday, at the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, in Luanda, in the second day of the trial which kicked off last Friday.

 

The former minister is being tried alongside other prominent cadres of the sector, namely Isabel Cristina de Ceita Bragança and Rui Manuel Moita (former deputy general directors, respectively for Finance and Technical Matters of the CNC), Manuel António Paulo, former general director of the CNC and Eurico da Silva, former deputy director for Administration and Finances.  

 

All of the defendants are responding to accusations of having committed the crimes of embezzlement, violation of the norms on budget execution and continued abuse of power.

 

The interrogation of the former Transports minister, Augusto Tomás, begins this Tuesday, during the third session of the trial.

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