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Prosecutors pursue illegal logging cases in Zambezia and Sofala – Mozambique
9:16 CAT | 23 Aug 2017
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Prosecutors in the central Mozambican provinces of Sofala and Zambezia are pursuing 35 cases of illegal logging and expect the suspects to appear in court soon, reports Wednesdays issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.
Most of these are in Sofala. According to information given to the paper by the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR), 29 cases have been investigated in Sofala, eight of which derive from “Operation Trunk”, the code name for the raids against timber yards earlier this year, headed by the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development .
During this operation, illegal operations were discovered in 75 per cent of the timber yards investigated, many of them run by Chinese operators. Over 150,000 cubic metres of illegally logged timber was seized.
Also Read: Mozambique cracks down on illegal logging
In Zambezia, prosecutors have processed six cases, and have laid charges against timber operators in four of them.
Some of these cases are among the 45 which the National Forestry directorate forwarded to the PGR in the wake of Operation Trunk.
In several cases, money-laundering is suspected, and so prosecutors are working with the country’s commercial banks to investigate suspicious transactions by timber companies.
Also Read: Two logging operators in court for not paying ‘Operação Tronco’ fines
Also Read: Logging: More illegal China-bound wood seized in Beira
Source: AIM
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