Hidden debts: Defendants deny owning houses – AIM report

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Hidden debts: Defendants deny owning houses – AIM report

7:29 CAT | 13 Apr 2022

Photo: Domingo

All four defendants in the case of Mozambique’s “hidden debts” who were questioned before the Maputo City Court on Wednesday denied owning the properties which the prosecution has asked the court to seize.

This was the second day in which defendants were asked to confirm or deny ownership of assets on a list of properties that could be seized to pay compensation to the Mozambican state for losses incurred in the scandal of the illicit debts.

This is in addition to properties that were confiscated at a much earlier stage of the proceedings because they were found to be the product of criminal activities.

The assets specified on the prosecution’s current list will be seized temporarily, until the court reaches a verdict on the guilt or innocence of the accused. If the assets are definitively seized, they could go towards compensating the Mozambican state.

First to be questioned by Judge Efigenio Baptista about his properties was Gregorio Leao, the former head of the Security and Intelligence Service (SISE), who categorically denied that he owns the houses and flats on the prosecution list. He said they belonged to a SISE front company, Alaba, and he had nothing to do with managing them.

Leao said Alaba is a SISE “operational vehicle”, and so he could reveal nothing about what it does. “I never gave instructions to the Alaba management”, he claimed.

But Leao’s name is on the documents setting up Alaba. It was Leao who had registered the company, and prosecutor Sheila Marrengula said there is sufficient evidence to show that Leao is a shareholder in Alaba.

Renato Matusse, once a political adviser to former President Armando Guebuza, denied that the house in Limpopo district, Gaza province, on the prosecution list, belonged to him personally. Instead, it was “the Matusse family house”, to which he, his brothers, and other family members had contributed. But Marrengula noted that earlier he had described the house as “mine”.

The prosecution also wanted to seize the titles to 15 plots of land in the locality of Romao, issued in Matusse’s name. Matusse denied ownership of 15 plots, and said the true figure was two.

Bruno Langa also denied ownership of those house attributed to him by the prosecution and said it is owned by his mother-in-law.

Teofilo Nhangumele likewiswe denied all knowledge of the house the prosecution says he own. “Out of everything written on this document, the only thing they got right is my name”, he declared.

Others of the accused will be questioned about their properties on Thursday.

Source: AIM