Angola will hold a state funeral for former President José Eduardo dos Santos in the capital, Luanda, on Sunday.
Dos Santos ran Angola for 38 years before stepping down in 2017. His MPLA party remains strong, however, having just secured another five years at an election on Wednesday.
There have been weeks of uncertainty over the former president’s final resting place. He died on July 8 at the age of 79 at a clinic in Barcelona, where he was being treated following a long illness.
A Spanish judge ruled last week 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 the former president’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.
Dos Santos, who was accused of amassing a family fortune from billions of dollars of squandered state oil wealth, is being buried on his 80th birthday.
Dos Santos never specifically responded to the allegations that he had allowed corruption to become rampant.
