Prosecutor wants Isabel dos Santos back in Angola

Angola’s prosecutor general has promised to use “all possible” means to bring Isabel dos Santos back to the country after leaked documents showed she was allowed to buy valuable state assets in a series of suspicious deals when her father was president.

Ms Dos Santos says the allegations against her are entirely false and that there is a politically motivated witch-hunt by the Angolan government.

Prosecutor Helder Pitra Gros told Angolan public radio:

“We will use all possible means and activate international mechanisms to bring Isabel dos Santos back to the country… We have asked for international support from Portugal, Dubai, and other countries.”

She is already under criminal investigation by the authorities in Angola for corruption and her assets in the country have been frozen.

The revelations came to light after BBC Panorama and other journalists were given access to more than 700,000 leaked documents about the billionaire’s business empire in what has become known as the Luanda Leaks.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese bank Eurobic has announced it will end its business relationship with Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, after a BBC Panorama investigation uncovered a myriad of suspicious looking deals.

She says the allegations against her are entirely false.

The billionaire daughter of Angola’s former president holds a 42.5% stake in Eurobic indirectly via two entities, reports Reuters news agency.

Eurobic was already under investigation from the central bank over its links to Ms dos Santos before the so-called Luanda Leaks came out earlier this week.

The bank said that the board of directors decided in a meeting on Monday to “terminate the commercial relationship with entities controlled by the universe of the shareholder Isabel dos Santos and people closely related to it.”

BBC Panorama was given access to more than 700,000 leaked documents, most obtained by the Platform to Protect Whistle-blowers in Africa and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Her business deals spanned from Angola’s state oil company to the country’s biggest mobile phone provider.