MADRID - A Spanish judge has ruled that the body of Angola’s longtime leader José Eduardo dos Santos may be returned to his home country in southern Africa.
The former president died in Barcelona on July 8 at the age of 79, but his burial set off a family feud with political consequences after his daughter Welwitschia dos Santos formally accused the former first lady as well as Mr. dos Santos’s longtime private doctor of homicide.
Mr. dos Santos stepped down in 2017 after 38 years in power, amid growing public protest, but remained a towering political figure in Angola.
After an autopsy showed that Mr. dos Santos had died of natural causes, Judge Francisco Javier Pauli Collado on Wednesday found in favour of his wife, Ana Paula dos Santos.
The ruling allows Ms. dos Santos to repatriate her husband’s body to Angola as soon as Friday, her lawyer, Josep Riba, said.
