Mozambique: Businessman kidnapped over a week ago found dead with “wounds and signs of aggression” – Lusa | Watch

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Mozambique: Businessman kidnapped over a week ago found dead with “wounds and signs of aggression” – Lusa | Watch

5:20 CAT | 27 Dec 2022

Screen grab: TVM

A businessman kidnapped over a week ago has been found dead in the early hours of this Tuesday in Maputo province, southern Mozambique, a police source told Lusa.

“The kidnappers abandoned him on the public road and communicated to the family, who went there to get the body,” Henrique Mendes, spokesman for the national criminal investigation service (Sernic) in Maputo province told Lusa.

According to the police, the businessman, who was kidnapped on 14 December, was abandoned in the Txumene area [municipality of Matola] , on the outskirts of Maputo city, and showed wounds and signs of aggression.

READ: Just in: Kidnapped Mozambican businessman found dead

Meanwhile, Minister of the Interior Arsênia Massingue told TVM this Tuesday morning, after extending condolences to the bereaved family, that the Sernic will, in the next few days, speak about this and other kidnapping cases under investigation.

TVM further reports that it is not clear whether the kidnaped businessman died while still in captivity or already in the place where he was abandoned by his abductors.

The family did not want to speak to the press and claims for justice, the TVM reporter states in the video below.

Hayum Aly Mamade was kidnapped outside one of his commercial establishments in Matola by an armed group.

A video captured by surveillance cameras at the crime scene shows the exact moment when the group, composed of four men, drags the businessman into a car in broad daylight.

Maputo and other Mozambican cities, mainly provincial capitals, have again been the scene of a wave of kidnappings since 2020, targeting mainly businessmen or their relatives.

Between January and November Mozambique recorded 11 kidnappings and 27 arrests linked to these crimes, according to figures presented by the interior minister, Arsénia Massingue.

In an assessment of criminality, presented at the beginning of June, the Mozambican public prosecutor, Beatriz Buchili, said that kidnapping crimes have been increasing and criminal groups have cross-border ramifications, maintaining cells in countries such as South Africa.

According to the magistrate, there are victims who are “constantly blackmailed” even after their release, continuing to pay sums of money to ensure they are not kidnapped again.

Hayum torturado até a morte, segundo o @CanalMoz. Um outro empresário, turco, que também havia sido raptado, este ano, esteve à beira da morte depois de ter sido torturado por 4 meses para pagar o resgate, acrescenta. Hoje está com problemas sérios de saúde e deixou de trabalhar. https://t.co/HB5deDeTRQ

— Alexandre  (@AllexandreMZ) December 27, 2022