Luanda, ANGOLA, September 26 - The defendant and former chief of the Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISM), general António José Maria "Zé Maria", has conditioned the restitution of documents relating to the Cuito Cuanavale Battle, in his possession, with a meeting between President João Lourenço and his predecessor, José Eduardo dos Santos. ,

The information was revealed last Wednesday, in court, by the assistant chief of the Intelligence Service and State Security (SINSE), José  Coimbra Baptista Júnior, in the ambit of lawsuit in which general Zé Maria stands accused of insubordination and mishandling sensitive state documents.     

 

According to José Coimbra Baptista Júnior, who is one of the witnesses of the prosecution department, on 11 February 2019 he attended the meeting between the defendant (before the detention) and the SINSE head, general Fernando Garcia Miala.   

 

In that meeting, he disclosed, the former SISM chief received an order from the Commander-in-Chief of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), João Lourenço, to return to the authorities the documents relating to the Cuito Cuanavale Battle, and was also informed that he had 48 hours to do so.

He went on to explain that, at that meeting, the defendant was reluctant to obey the order from the Commander-in-Chief, even though he was reminded of the consequences of such attitude.

 

José Coimbra said that despite further attempts from the SINSE head, Fernando Garcia Miala, to dissuade gen. Zé Maria from adopting such stance, the latter kept his position and said that the documents were in the premises of the José Eduardo dos Santos Foundation ( FESA), where he was concluding an essay on the Cuito Cuanavale Battle.

 

António José Maria, now a reserve general, was the SISM chief from 2009 to 2017.

 

The trial, which started last September 12, proceeds this Thursday.

 

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