The President of Angola, Jose Eduardo dos Santos. File photoMOSCOW, Aug 20The remains of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos have been returned home from Spain, Agence France Presse reported. As France Presse correspondents reported from the scene, the plane with the remains landed in the capital of Angola, having arrived from Barcelona in the evening,» the agency reports. It is noted that several dozen people, including some of his children and his widow, Ana Paula. On Wednesday, a court in Barcelona ruled that the remains of dos Santos should be handed over to his widow to be returned home for burial. Forensic experts have previously stated that dos Santos died of natural causes.The Cuban authorities have declared mourning over the death of ex-president of Angola, Dos Santos, died in a hospital in Barcelona on July 8, he was 79 years old. It was reported that he spent the last days in an artificial coma after cardiac arrest. His daughter Chise (Velvichia) dos Santos blamed his ex-wife Ana Paula and his personal doctor for the murder of the ex-president. The dos Santos family's statement also spoke of pressure from the Angolan government to repatriate the remains as soon as possible for their burial in their homeland. Meanwhile, according to Chise dos Santos, her father wanted to be buried in Barcelona, where he has lived since 2019. A graduate of the Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry (USSR), dos Santos has led Angola for 38 years, since 1979. He concentrated his main efforts on a peaceful settlement in a country where a civil war was going on with the intervention of the USSR, Cuba, the USA and South Africa. The war lasted until 2002, when the leader of the UNITA opposition movement, Jonas Savimbi, was killed. Dos Santos resigned from the presidency in September 2017, refusing to participate in the next elections. He was the second longest-serving head of state in the world (not counting the monarchs of Great Britain and Thailand) after the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The latter took charge of his country only a month and a half earlier than dos Santos.
