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Dos
Santos, who stepped down five years ago, died on July 8 at the
age of 79 at a clinic in Barcelona, where he was being treated
following a prolonged illness.
A Spanish judge ruled on Wednesday that the death was from
natural causes, ruling out foul play, and allowed the release
and repatriation of his body.
The Carmen Varela and Molins law firms representing dos Santos's
daughter, Tchize dos Santos, had earlier successfully requested
a full autopsy citing alleged "suspicious circumstances" of his
death, without providing evidence, and had asked for his body to
be buried in Barcelona.
Tchize and her lawyers have argued that dos Santos's wish was to
be buried in Barcelona rather than his body being returned to
Angola for a state funeral, which they say dos Santos's
successor, Joao Lourenço, will likely use for political
purposes.
Although handpicked by dos Santos, Lourenço swiftly moved to
investigate allegations of multi-billion dollar corruption
during the former president's era, often involving the dos
Santos family.
Dos Santos never specifically responded to the allegations that
he had allowed corruption to become rampant.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley, Andrei Khalip, Catarina Demony;
Editing by Frances Kerry)
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