for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). He was one of the defendants in the "Process of the fifty", i.e. three criminal proceedings in 1960 for "high treason", i.e. favoring the independence of Angola from colonial rule. He was then imprisoned for many years on the Cabo Verde islands, also under Portuguese colonial rule at the time. Desidério Costa, who went to school in Portugal during the process of his father, sought refuge in West Germany from prosecution by the PIDE, secret police of the Salazar regime. In Germany, he found his first refuge in a physician's family in Lüdenscheid, where he also worked in a factory and started to learn German. He prepared to study medicine, then served for several years as president of the association of students from the Portuguese colonies with seat in Morocco, before he decided to turn to the study of petroleum engineering, so that at least one Angolan patriot knowledgeable in petroleum engineering would be available after achieving independence. Desidério Costa is married and has five children. References External links Website of Angolan Petroleum ministry on internal organisation Information of ministry shake-up Article on OPEC expansion Chinese article on oil in Angola Article on African Petroleum Producing Countries CIA listing of government officials in Angola 1934 births Living people People from Luanda Petroleum ministers of Angola MPLA politicians University of Leoben alumni