Switzerland denied on Monday it had leaked information to a French newspaper about the alleged involvement of Angola’s president in a $614-million embezzlement of his government’s loan repayment to Russia.
The allegations recently published in Le Monde sparked a diplomatic row between Angola and Switzerland.
On Sunday, the Angolan president’s office issued a statement accusing the Swiss government of leaking the information to the newspaper, which it called an ”unfriendly act.”
It said publication of the information was part of a ”defamatory campaign” by unnamed ”international economic circles” to stop the southwest African country from getting aid.
Swiss Foreign Ministry representative Daniela Stoffel-Fatzer said Swiss authorities did not leak any information about the joint French-Swiss investigation into money laundering, arms trafficking and embezzlement.
The Swiss side of the investigation is being handled by cantonal (state) justice authorities in Geneva, and Stoffel-Fatzer said Switzerland’s federal government had no influence over the inquiry.
She said that Angola has said it may withdraw its ambassador to Switzerland ”for consultation” and that Swiss authorities had ”noted” this.
”But we have had good relations with Angola in the past and we think we still have good relations with Angola,” she said. Le Monde alleged last week that $614-million of the $774-million loan, which was to have been repaid between 1996 and 2000, had disappeared.
The newspaper said Angola’s President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and Industry Minister Elisio de Figueiredo had jointly pocketed $40-million of the money.
The transfer was handled by two French intermediaries, Pierre Falcone and Arcadi Gaydamak, via their company’s Geneva bank account, the newspaper reported.
Gaydamak and Falcone are also being investigated for money laundering and Falcone is suspected of trafficking arms to Angola, the newspaper said.
Angola’s Defence Minister Kundi Paihama appealed on Monday during a visit to Portugal for international aid to help rebuild his country. Angola was a Portuguese colony until 1975.
Last week, Dos Santos appealed to French President Jacques Chirac and the European Union for aid to his war-ravaged country. The United Nations says up to half a million people in oil and diamond-rich Angola face starvation.
Despite its mineral wealth – it exports more oil to the United States than Kuwait – much of Angola lies in ruins following almost 30 years of continual civil war. – Sapa-AP