Angolan vice president implicated in Portugal graft probe

Lisbon (AFP) - Angolan Vice President Manuel
Vicente has been directly implicated in a corruption
probe in Portugal which triggered the arrest of a
magistrate this week, a source told AFP Thursday.
Public prosecutor Orlando Figueira, 54, is suspected
of receiving a bribe of at least 200,000 euros
($220,000) in return for shelving an investigation
into the Angolan politician, according to media
reports.
A source close to the case confirmed a report by
Portuguese news agency Lusa that Vicente is
suspected of corruption over the affair. The
Portuguese prosecutor's office declined to comment
on the report.
On Tuesday officials announced the arrest of
Figueira, who has been on unpaid leave since
September 2012, in an investigation into corruption
and money laundering.
The prosecutor's office, while not naming Figueira,
said they had detained someone suspected of having
"received compensation .. to act in favour of the
suspect in a probe which he was leading."
The probe, shelved in January 2012, centred on the
origin of funds with which Vicente, then the head
of Angola's public oil company Sonangol, had
bought a luxury apartment in a Lisbon suburb.
According to Portuguese media reports, Figueira
received at least 200,000 euros from a subsidiary of
Sonangol to bury the affair.
The Angolan politician's Portuguese lawyer, Paulo
Amaral Blanco, has been put under formal
investigation for corruption, and his office was
raided.
"We have nothing to do with what prosecutor
Orlando Figueira might have done, and we hope he
will clarify everything," the lawyer told the daily
Correio da Manha.
In November 2013, Portuguese prosecutors shelved
another probe for tax fraud and money laundering
involving Vicente.
A year earlier Portuguese press revelations about
probes targeting senior Angolan regime officials
sparked a chill in diplomatic ties between Portugal
and Angola, one of its former African colonies.