Angola’s Constitutional Court has overturned a five-year sentence that had been handed to the son of former President José Eduardo dos Santos for fraud.

José Filomeno dos Santos was sentenced in 2020 for his role in the illegal transfer of $500m (£378m) from Angola’s Sovereign Fund to a private account in the UK.

He appealed against the verdict in 2022.

In a ruling published on Thursday, the Constitutional Court declared his conviction as “unconstitutional”, because it breached “the principles of legality, adversarial proceedings, a fair and consistent judgement and the rights of the defence”.

The former leader’s son, also known as Zenu, was the head of Angola’s Sovereign Wealth Fund from 2013 to 2018.

Source:BBC