Angola ex-President Dos Santos returns home months before election

Angola ex-President Dos Santos returns home months earlier than election

Angola's ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Tuesday arrived inside the southern Africa state from Spain, the first time he has lower back domestic due to the fact that retiring, the country press corporation stated.

Dos Santos left the country in 2019 after handing the reigns over the previous year, to President Joao Lourenco, who has given that targeted the former first family in an anti-graft probe.

He landed in Angola's capital Luanda on Tuesday morning after spending two years in Barcelona, Angop reported.

Dos Santos delivers a speech during his final election campaign rally in Kilamba Kaixi, on the outskirts of Luanda, on August 29, 2012. Image: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP

The period of his stay changed into not without delay clear.

Dos Santos, 79, is accused of appointing relatives and buddies to pinnacle positions throughout his 38-yr presidency of the oil-rich country.

Critics say corruption was rife in the course of his rule, with wealth amassing within the palms of a pick few and billions of bucks allegedly embezzled from country-owned corporations.

President Joao Lourenco, who took workplace in 2018, has promised to root out graft and restore the oil-dependent economy.

He launched an anti-corruption marketing campaign towards the former regime that has honed in on a number of dos Santos's youngsters.

Prosecutors in 2019 froze the commercial enterprise belongings of dos Santos's billionaire daughter Isabel dos Santos, appointed chair of nation oil employer Sonangol all through her father's rule.

Removed from the position quickly after Lourenco stepped in, Isabel is being probed for allegedly syphoning state funds into offshore belongings -- accusations she vehemently denies.

Her half of-brother Jose Filomeno dos Santos was sentenced to five years in prison in August final 12 months for diverting oil revenues from Angola's sovereign wealth fund, which he oversaw from 2013 to 2018.

Dos Santos is underneath presidential immunity from prosecution until 2022, 5 years after the end of his mandate.

Angolans will meanwhile be heading to the polls subsequent yr for presidential, parliamentary and local elections.

Lourenco is extensively predicted to vie for a second time period.

He has fallen in the back of on his promise to restore the economy and brought about ire a number of the competition for making "unfair" electoral regulation amendments this month.