The Supreme Court recently denied the request for habeas corpus presented by the defense of Major Pedro Lussati, sentenced to 12 years in prison, contradicting the decision of the Public Ministry, which approved the change of the coercion measure for a milder one, upon payment a deposit of one billion kwanzas.
The representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court also proposed that, if the Court agreed to Lussati’s request, he should present himself periodically to the authorities, every 48 hours, in accordance with Order No. 02/ 23, dated November 14, drawn up by presiding judge Joel Leonardo.
The presiding judge of the Supreme Court also ordered the filing of the request as he considered that any approach to this request for habeas corpus was unnecessary, meaning that the defendant must remain in prison and continue to await the outcome of the terms of the process in prison. Pedro Lussati was convicted precisely one year ago, completed on the 10th of this month, for the crimes of continuous embezzlement, money laundering and fraud in transporting currency abroad.
This is because he was considered the leader of a group that defrauded the State of several million dollars. Initially, the defendant had been sentenced by the Provincial Court of Luanda to a sentence of 14 years in prison and to pay a fine for the crime of retaining the currency. “In legal terms, co-defendant Pedro Lussati is sentenced to a single sentence of 14 years in prison and a 100-day fine at the rate of 100 procedural reference units per day”, said the judge in the case, Andrade da Silva, at the time.
However, following an appeal lodged by his lawyer Francisco Muteka, at the Court of Appeal, the sentence was reduced to 12 years in prison. Due to insufficient evidence, he acquitted the 49 defendants in this case of the crimes of criminal association, improper receipt of advantages, abuse of power, illicit introduction of foreign currency into the country and illegal currency trading. It should be noted that, unhappy with the decision of this court of appeal, Francisco Muteka filed another appeal to the Plenary of the Supreme Court and is awaiting the process to be analyzed.
