Mozambique: Suspected kidnap gang boss held in South Africa faces over 20-year jail term – Lusa report

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Mozambique: Suspected kidnap gang boss held in South Africa faces over 20-year jail term – Lusa report

3:19 CAT | 10 Jan 2023

File photo: Folha de Maputo

Esmael Nangy is among those suspected of organizing the wave of kidnappings in Mozambique’s provincial capitals.

The Mozambican man detained in South Africa for allegedly leading a group that carried out kidnappings with ransom demands in Mozambique faces a prison sentence of over 20 years, according to the arrest warrant to which Lusa had access.

“An arrest warrant was issued in the Republic of Mozambique at the Criminal Division of the Judicial Court of Maputo City against Mr Esmael Maulide Ramos Nangy, who is wanted in the Republic of Mozambique to stand trial and answer for the crime of kidnapping (…), with a prison sentence of 16 to 20 years, and a crime of criminal association (…), with a prison sentence of 8 to 12 years,” reads the arrest warrant issued by the South African judicial authorities on July 18, 2022.

The document adds that the Maputo authorities requested the “provisional detention” of the alleged leader of the kidnappings “in the scope of Article 13 of the Extradition Treaty between the Government of South Africa and the Government of Mozambique”.

Mozambican Minister of the Interior, Arsénia Massingue, told the press in Maputo on Monday that Nangy was among those suspected of organizing the wave of kidnappings in the provincial capitals of Mozambique.

However, South African lawyer Calvin Maile, the defence for the alleged, refuted Maputo’s accusations at the first hearing at the Tembisa Magistrate Court on the outskirts of Johannesburg, calling Nangy a “respected” businessman with trucking business operating between Mozambique and South Africa, where he has permanent residence.

“The allegations were not aired in court. All we know at this point is that an employee of my client, a mechanic, was arrested on these charges in Mozambique. The allegations are that the vehicle he used was involved in kidnappings; my client owns that vehicle,” the South African press on Tuesday reported Maile as saying.

The South African lawyer did not specify the type of vehicle, but noted that his client was in South Africa “at the time the kidnappings took place”, questioning “the basis of the arrest for crimes in which he denies having any participation”, adding, without specifying the number of victims involved, that “Nangy seems to have been accused of giving the kidnapping instruction to his employee”.

For her part, the wife of the alleged ringleader told the South African press that “we are afraid that he will be extradited to Mozambique”. “I will not accept my husband going to Mozambique until they show us what he did,” she said.

South African magistrate Karien Brits considered it “reasonable” to postpone the case until next Monday, January 16, so that South Africa could “obtain the necessary documents” from the Government of Mozambique regarding the extradition request.

Esmael Maulide Ramos Nangy, 50, appeared at Tembisa Magistrates Court this Monday after being arrested at a luxury condominium in Centurion, on the outskirts of Pretoria, the South African capital, over the weekend.

READ; Mozambique: State awaiting formal notice of kidnap gang boss detention detention by Pretoria

Source: Lusa