20120421
AFP
Top Angolan human rights lawyer David Mendes on Friday vowed to press ahead with his corruption case against President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, after prosecutors declined to the take up the charges.

"I'm going to appeal this decision," Mendes told AFP of the complaint he lodged four months ago, accusing Dos Santos of skimming off the Treasury.

Prosecutors on Wednesday said they had no jurisdiction to take up the case, saying the charges should rather be heard in parliament, which is dominated by Dos Santos's party.

"If the attorney general is not in a position to take up such matters, it could at least open a judicial inquiry into Dos Santos and his collaborators," Mendes said.

"I have evidence against them and evidence on the money that was embezzled, to the detriment of the Angolan people," he added.

Mendes heads the small opposition Popular Party and founded the local rights groups Maos Livres (Free Hands). He is one of the leading campaigners for transparency in Angola's notoriously opaque finances.

Mendes filed the criminal complaint against Dos Santos and other top officials, including Manuel Vicente, the former boss of the state oil company Sonangol.

He says he has documented millions of dollars that have been siphoned off into European and US bank accounts.