Mozambique: Absurd bail set in pigeon pea saga; case to be shelved – Attorney-General’s Office

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Mozambique: Absurd bail set in pigeon pea saga; case to be shelved – Attorney-General’s Office

5:21 CAT | 28 Jan 2024

FIKE - For illustration purposes only. "It is also unknown what strong indications of the commission of a felonious crime punishable by a prison sentence of more than two years were invoked for the imposition of pre-trial detention," the PGR order states."It is clear from the case file that the [local] public prosecutor's office and the [local, Nampula province] judge did not consider the other coercive measures to be inadequate or insufficient in this case, since the former promoted and the latter accepted and decided to replace them with bail in the absurd and astronomical amount of 3,871,850,000 meticais," it reads. [File photo: O País]

The Mozambican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) considered the amount of bail set by the local public prosecutor’s office to be “absurd and astronomical” in the dispute over the export of pigeon peas to India, between RGL and the ETG conglomerate, and ordered it to be cancelled.

In an order dated 15 January, signed by Deputy Attorney-General Amabelia Chuquela, from the PGR’s specialised criminal department, it was decided to “annul the decisions of the Nacala-Porto Public Prosecutor’s Office” in the preparatory investigation of this case, which has been opposing the two groups for several months and which conditions the export of cowpeas and other agricultural products from that port town in the north of the country to India (which buys all the country’s production of those beans).

In the same order, to which Lusa had access on Friday, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) decides to “order the local prosecutor to revoke the coercive measures against the defendants” and to “order the investigation to be closed” for “lack of a crime”, in a case that has been highly publicised internationally in recent months.

Lusa previously reported that ETG’s leader, Maheshkumar Raojibhai Patel, even appealed to Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi, in a letter dated 26 December, to intervene in the “pigeon pea saga”, in which he claimed to be the victim of “expropriation” of cargo and goods by competitor Royal Group Limitada (RGL).

In response to Lusa, an official ETG source said that RGL “was caught sending GMO (genetically modified organisms) products to India by the Indian authorities more than a year ago” – in November 2022 – and that it “decided to recover the losses from this incident by starting an unfounded dispute” against the conglomerate, which was “criminalised with the cooperation of public entities” in Mozambique.

In October 2022, the Nampula provincial court ordered the suspension of all exports by ETG and other groups also accused by RGL in this case of being whistle-blowers to the Indian authorities. The following day, the Nampula provincial court ordered RGL to seize ETG’s assets, including real estate and ships, and froze its bank accounts, applying bail of more than 3,871 million meticais ( €55.8 million).

This amount was secured with the seizure of cargo, namely pigeon peas produced in Mozambique and which ETG intended to export – just as RGL does – with the conglomerate accusing RGL in recent days of appropriating the cargo and intending to send it precisely to India.

“The magistrates should have given reasons for their factual decisions, in terms of legal arguments, and why they considered the less severe coercive measures to be inadequate or insufficient in this case,” criticises the order from the PGR’s specialised criminal department, given that a representative of ETG was even given the precautionary measure of pre-trial detention by the local court.

“It is also unknown what strong indications of the commission of a felonious crime punishable by a prison sentence of more than two years were invoked for the imposition of pre-trial detention,” the PGR order states.

“It is clear from the case file that the [local, Nampula province] public prosecutor’s office and the [local, Nampula province]and judge did not consider the other coercive measures to be inadequate or insufficient in this case, since the former promoted and the latter accepted and decided to replace them with bail in the absurd and astronomical amount of 3,871,850,000 meticais,” it reads.

The PGR’s order, in a case that is still under investigation, also concluded that RGL’s complaint about the offences of slanderous denunciation and use of a false document, imputed to ETG over the alleged export of genetically modified products to India, was unfounded:

“We can state that not enough evidence has been gathered with the potential for an Indictment to reasonably culminate in a conviction”.

“As a matter of urgency, the case file should be returned to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the district of Nacala-Porto to be complied with,” concludes the same order.

Source: Lusa