Portugal charges wife of ousted Guinea-Bissau leader

Portuguese authorities charged the wife of Guinea-Bissau’s ousted president as part of an investigation into suspected smuggling and money laundering, judicial police said Tuesday. Dinisia Reis Embalo, the wife of Umaro Sissoco Embalo, arrived in Lisbon on the same flight from Guinea-Bissau as another passenger who was arrested by Portuguese authorities on Sunday following an […]

Portuguese authorities charged the wife of Guinea-Bissau’s ousted president as part of an investigation into suspected smuggling and money laundering, judicial police said Tuesday.

Dinisia Reis Embalo, the wife of Umaro Sissoco Embalo, arrived in Lisbon on the same flight from Guinea-Bissau as another passenger who was arrested by Portuguese authorities on Sunday following an anonymous tip-off.

The latter passenger, who was transporting nearly five million euros ($5.9 million) in cash, was suspected of smuggling and money laundering, police said in a statement.

Dinisia Reis Embalo’s charge was “linked” to that investigation, a judicial police spokesperson told AFP without giving further details.

The flight carrying both individuals had originally been classified as military and had been due to continue to the southern Portuguese city of Beja.

However, “subsequently it was verified that the nature of the flight and its destination were different”, police previously said.

Portuguese media have reported that the first suspect was a man close to Guinea-Bissau’s overthrown president, Embalo, who fled after the military ousted him in a November 26 coup.

Public broadcaster RTP identified him as businessman Tito Gomes Fernandes.

The coup in Guinea-Bissau is the latest in a string of takeover attempts in the small West African nation since its independence from Portugal in 1974.