Court to announce verdict in former ambassador case on March 12

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Court to announce verdict in former ambassador case on March 12

4:04 CAT | 13 Feb 2019

The Judicial Court of Ka Mpfumo in Maputo has scheduled the sentencing of former ambassador of Mozambique to the United States of America, Amelia Sumbana, who is accused of misappropriation, embezzlement and money laundering, for 12 March.

The trial of Amelia Sumbana, who served in Washington from 2009 to 2015, began on Tuesday, and completed all the formalities within about six hours, the judge scheduling sentencing in precisely one month’s time.

In his closing arguments, public prosecutor Alexandre Chiconela requested that the defendant be sentenced to a prison term, the missing amounts be returned, and property acquired with the proceeds of the crime confiscated.

Sumbana’s defence lawyer Pedro Macaringue asked the court to acquit his client because, according to him, no crime was committed, this being a case of failure following administrative procedures.

The public prosecutor accused Sumbana of having diverted money into bank accounts of her own. She justified the banking transactions with the fact that the banks did not accept that embassies, mainly African, had accounts. Therefore, in order to facilitate transactions, the accounts had be in her name.

“There was no other way to carry out expenses,” she said, adding that “use of personal accounts is not a written rule in the Mozambican state, but it is a practice, and an accepted practice,” newspaper O País reports.

Source: Voa Portugues