The “red alert” is not an international arrest warrant, but rather a “request to police forces around the world to locate and pre-emptively detain a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal actions”. This alert had been issued at the request of the Angolan authorities,

The daughter of the former Angolan president is wanted, according Lusa, on suspicion of “crimes of embezzlement, qualified fraud, illegal participation in business, criminal association and influence peddling, money laundering”, with a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison.

The same document also indicates that the Angolan is usually between Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

Between 2015 and 2017, Interpol explains that Isabel dos Santos created financial mechanisms “with the intention of obtaining illicit financial gains and whitewashing suspicious criminal operations”, through “information on public money from the Angolan State” that she obtained as administrator of the state oil company Sonangol. It is claimed that she damaged the Angolan State by more than 200 million euros.

Isabel Santos, in several interviews, says that she is being the victim of “political persecution” in her home country. “There is no doubt that we are facing a scenario of political persecution. Looking at Angola and its legal system, it is easy to understand that the Attorney General of the Republic receives orders directly from President João Lourenço. I believe that there is political revenge and political persecution against me and my family”, she said in an interview with CNN Portugal.