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Mozambique: Court convicts kidnapping accomplice – Noticias report
7:54 CAT | 24 Sep 2021
File photo: Lusa
The 6th Section of the Judicial Court of Sofala this Tuesday sentenced a mobile phone card registering agent to six years in prison for having registered the SIM card of a number with a document that served as the ransom demand following the kidnapping of an economic agent in this city.
The agent, S. João, will also have to pay the victim 200,000 meticais in compensation.
The judge in the case, Martinho Muchiguere, made it known, during the reading of the sentence, that on May 16, 2020, at around 10:00 a.m., S. João registered a sim card in the name of a citizen known as Suzete Amide, who was already connected to the same mobile network with another number.
Muchiguere recalled that on May 15, 2020, at around 6:00 p.m., criminals approached a businessman in the Ponta-Gêa neighbourhood of Beira city, forcing him into a Toyota Runx brand vehicle.
They covered his head with a coat, put him in the back seat of the car, and took off at high speed. The victim remained in captivity until the 21st of May, and on the 17th of the same month one of the criminals made the first call to the businessman’s son, claiming that he was with his father and demanding a ransom of US$500,000.
After intense negotiations, the parties agreed on a sum of one million meticais, which was delivered on the Manga bridge according to the instructions of the kidnappers, who then restored their victim to freedom.
Judge Muchiguere also recounted that, both in the preparatory instruction and in the trial, it was found that Suzete Amide, Dada Ismail, Mohamad Abú and Irshad Banú had been detained in connection with this case, but without ‘flagrante delicto’, and on the basis of suspicions and for reasons which remain unknown.
Meanwhile, the victim’s son stated that, when delivering the ransom money, he was unable to recognise the criminals who, being transported on a motorbike, were “wearing masks” [“mascarados”].
Dada Ismail, who was acquitted, was happy with the outcome, but indignant at the police.
“I’m sad about the way they arrested me, because I never did anything and that it tarnished my name. I work on my own. I lost a contract because I was on trial for being a kidnapper,” he said.
Dada Ismail added that he was imprisoned for some length of time and had had to pay more than one million meticais in bail.
Source: Noticias
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