Mozambique: NGO wants clarification on death of Siba-Siba Macuácua

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Mozambique: NGO wants clarification on death of Siba-Siba Macuácua

3:36 CAT | 12 Aug 2020

File photo: DW

Mozambican non-governmental organisation the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) argues that the state should explain the circumstances surrounding the murder 19 years ago of the economist and former president of the defunct Banco Austral, António Siba-Siba Macuácua.

“Because it is never too late to demand justice, the CDD argues that the State must explain the circumstances surrounding the murder of Siba-Siba Macuácua and hold to account all the individuals involved in this serious violation of human rights,” a statement sent to the media on Tuesday (August 11), the 19th anniversary of the economist’s murder.

The then president of Banco Austral was thrown from the 14th floor, at a time when he was investigating the damaging management of the banking institution.

The CDD says there have been 19 years of “uncomfortable silence” on the part of justice officials, who “never bothered to deepen investigations to clarify” the “heinous crime”.

“These are 19 years of impunity for the material and moral authors who have silenced a real combatant in the fight against organised crime, and 19 years of injustice for the family of Siba-Siba Macuácua and for the entire Mozambican society, which is itself the victim of crimes of corruption,” the text adds.

In 2010, the Public Prosecutor’s Office refrained from charging the Mozambican managers indicted for the harmful management of the former Banco Austral, despite the evidence brought by a forensic audit, the CDD recalls.

“Today, 19 years have passed, but no-one has been tried and convicted of the crime that took the economist’s life,” the NGO laments.

Siba-Siba, who took over the bank following a period of damaging management by a consortium formed by a Malaysian bank and Mozambican investors, died when he was preparing to disclose the names of the bank’s largest debtors, a list which allegedly included politicians and economic actors with close links to those in power.

The beneficiaries of such bad debts allegedly accessed money from the defunct bank without providing the necessary guarantees, driving the bank to the verge of bankruptcy.

Source: Lusa