The crisis installed in the family of the former Angolan President, José Eduardo dos Santos, is seen by two well-known Angolan jurists, contacted by VOA, as the result of an "animosity" because of the lack of cooperation between his children and the former First Lady of Angola, Ana Paula dos Santos.

The former Angolan deputy Tchizé dos Santos, daughter of the former President of Angola, confirmed this Wednesday, 29, that her children have hired a Spanish lawyer to, based on that country's justice, make the matrimonial relationship between the couple null and void.

Tchizé dos Santos claims that the fact that Ana Paula dos Santos has not been living with her father under communion of table and bed in recent years takes away her right to continue living with her husband in Barcelona.

The former president's daughter also rejects any interference by the state and President João Lourenço in the affairs inherent to her father's illness, something that the Angolan government through its foreign minister has denied.

The jurist Lindo Bernardo Tito also understands that in this matter "it is avoidable that the Angolan State interferes, for example, in the choice of the medical team, because it is a family matter in which the State should only support and help in whatever is necessary.

Bernardo Tito defends that the former First Lady of Angola, Ana Paula dos Santos, did not lose her rights and duties as a wife, based on the Angolan law because he understands that the Spanish justice has no jurisdiction over the acts performed by the Angolan State.

However, the lawyer considers that the fact that Ana Paula dos Santos supposedly left her husband for a relatively long period of time and the fact that in the passports the address of the domicile of the two is different, "is proof that there was no longer communion of table between them.

"The relationship between people who marry is a daily relationship that results in common communion and coexistence. When this relationship is broken it is because the marriage is also broken from the material point of view and we cannot say that this marriage exists from the formal point of view as from the material point of view it no longer exists," argues, Bernardo Tito.

The lawyer admits that a probable injunction to be filed by the hired lawyer could result in Ana Paula dos Santos and José Eduardo dos Santos' personal physician returning to Angola, leaving the situation under the control of the children.

However, the lawyer Albano Pedro also believes that an eventual separation of the couple can only be taken by the personal will of José Eduardo dos Santos or under his mandate.

"Being a marriage that was entered into without vices and is in force, even if there is a situation of separation of bed and board it is not the children who should bring the action unless it is the father who clearly expresses this desire and, not being physically or psychologically able to do so. It is not enough that they are separated by bed and board, which is a mere de facto separation. The legal separation has to be initiated," says Pedro.

For that jurist, "people can stay many years without living together and keep the relationship of formalized marriage.

Albano Pedro added that the State "must interfere" in the health condition of the former Angolan President by virtue of the constitutional protection to which he is entitled as a member of the Council of the Republic and enjoys special protection.

The jurist also warns that "the Angolan State will not be able to express the President's wishes to either the Spanish justice or the hospitals or medical services that are caring for the former Angolan statesman" such as, for example, the transfer of the patient or the replacement of the medical team.

Albano Pedro and Lindo Bernardo Tito consider that the situation could have been avoided if there had been some thought in the handling of the case between the parties involved, and that a legal dispute at this stage "does not contribute positively to the emotional stability that José Eduardo dos Santos needs to get out of the state of health he is in.

Tete António clarifies

Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tete António, assured today that he is in Barcelona "to find out about the state of health of the former President of the Republic" and denied that he was mandated to turn off the machines that ensure the assistance to José Eduardo dos Santos, as suggested by Tchizé dos Santos.

"We are Africans and we have a culture that is not conducive to these kinds of hypotheses," said the head of Angolan diplomacy.