Mozambique: Lack of hidden debt trial ‘worrying’ a year after detentions – Lusa

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Lack of hidden debt trial ‘worrying’ a year after detentions – Lusa

12:30 CAT | 17 Feb 2020

File photo: DW

Mozambican analysts consider it “worrying” that the case of the hidden debts has not gone to court, a year after the first arrests, pointing to the “unprecedented magnitude” of the case as the probable cause of the lack of judicial outcome.

Adriano Nuvunga, director of the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD), a Mozambican civil society organisation, told Lusa that the lack of a trial in the hidden debt case raises concern, one year after the first arrests and with the loans causing damage to the economy and the country’s image.

“There is a great deal of concern because the case has not yet been judicially closed, even though there is a lot of incriminating material,” Nuvunga said.

The situation can be seen by society as another sign of “subordination” of justice to the government, due to the political weight of the figures involved in the scandal, he said.

Edson Cortez, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), another civil society organisation that has been very incisive in following up the case, said the lack of a trial causes “apprehension” in Mozambican society, because enough evidence have been collected that already justify celerity in the process,

“There is a sense of apprehension about the idea that there is stagnation, but we must ensure that the law is respected, including the rights of the defendants,” said Edson Cortez.

Cortez noted that the evidence produced in the case that led to the trial and acquittal in New York at the beginning of December of one of the key pieces of the case, the Lebanese Jean Boustani, provides sufficient information for the trial in Mozambique not to proceed any further.

Elísio de Sousa, a Mozambican criminal lawyer, considered that “the unprecedented magnitude” of the hidden debts case and the exercise of the defendants’ full right to a defence justifies the delay in the trial.

“This is an unprecedented case in the history of Mozambique, due to the amounts involved, the number of suspects, the judicial appeals that have been filed and the jurisdictions involved”, Elísio de Sousa noted.

Some of the acts carried out in the operation that resulted in the hidden debts occurred in several countries and proof of these facts requires judicial cooperation, Sousa added.

He pointed out that the absence of the former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang, arrested in South Africa as part of an extradition process, also slowed the process in Mozambique, he said.

“The expectation at the moment is that the process in Mozambique will gain new momentum after the Attorney General’s Office has withdrawn the resources it presented in South Africa within the framework of the extradition process of the former Finance Minister,” he said.

In the context of the hidden debt scandal, 20 people were charged (19 are in prison and one is at large, Elias Moiane) in Mozambique, awaiting the court’s decision on the appeals they filed against the indictment.

Among them are figures from the circle close to former President Armando Guebuza, such as his personal secretary, Inês Moaine, and one of the sons, Ndambi Guebuza.

Arrests in Mozambique began on 14 February 2019 after the U.S. courts ordered the arrest of Manuel Chang, Guebuza’s former finance minister, on 29 December 2018 while traveling through South Africa, where he is now awaiting extradition – also disputed by Mozambique.

The hidden debts are related to the guarantees given by the government of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza in favour of loans of around US$2.2 billion to the public naval companies Ematum, MAM and Proindicus.

This case also involves former bankers of Credit Suisse, the institution that lent the money alongside the Russian bank VTB, and also Jean Boustani, negotiator of the shipyard Privinvest, meanwhile acquitted by the US court

The Mozambican and American justice systems consider that part of the money was used for personal enrichment, payment of bribes to Mozambican and foreign citizens, among other crimes.

Source: Lusa