Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos lost an appeal on Monday to overturn an order freezing up to US$ 778 million of her assets as part of a court case in London's High Court.

Dos Santos, Africa's first female billionaire, whose father, José Eduardo dos Santos, ruled Angola for 38 years until 2017 - is being sued by the Angolan telecommunications operator Unitel.

Unitel received a worldwide freezing order on the businesswoman's assets in December and on Monday the Court of Appeal rejected her appeal against that decision.

Dos Santos has faced accusations of corruption in Angola for years. She denies the allegations and says she is the target of a long-standing political vendetta.

She is being sued by Unitel for loans made to the Dutch company Unitel International Holdings (UIH) in 2012 and 2013, when she was a director of Unitel, to finance the acquisition of shares in telecommunications companies by UIH.Dos Santos owns and controls UIH, the Court of Appeal said in its ruling.

Unitel and UIH are not related, despite having the same name, and dos Santos resigned as director of Unitel in 2020.

The loans have not been repaid and around 300 million pounds are outstanding, Unitel's lawyers argued in the High Court.

But dos Santos, who claims to be the victim of a "campaign of oppression" by Angola, says that Unitel is responsible for UIH's inability to repay the loans due to its alleged role in Angola's illegal seizure of UIH's assets. (Source: Reuters)