Kidnappers on trial in Beira – Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Kidnappers on trial in Beira – Watch

8:05 CAT | 15 Dec 2017

Miramar

The Sofala provincial court, sitting in the central Mozambican city of Beira, on Thursday began the trial of four people accused of kidnapping the grandson of a Beira businessman, Harish Motichande, in May 2016, according to a report in Friday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

The boy was abducted on his way to school. The kidnappers shot the family driver and seized the boy from the car. They demanded a ransom of over four million meticais (about 67,000 US dollars), which was deposited in four accounts held in commercial banks in Maputo.

These accounts were then operated by the people now on trial in Beira, Samuel Soto, J. Sitoe, J. Sarmento and G. Muianga.

Also Read: Breaking: Kidnappers abduct 9-year old child in Beira, Mozambique
Breaking: Nine-year-old boy kidnapped in Beira, Mozambique, rescued – Family source

Sitoe had initially denied all involvement in the kidnapping. But in court he confessed to forging identity cards, and setting up fictitious companies, through which the ransom money passed.

But he said he had not actually kidnapped the victim. He claimed he had been contacted by “a friend” who needed the number of an account where he could deposit some money.

“I agreed that they could transfer money to my account, because there were promises that I could earn something out of this”, Sitoe said.

Asked why he had used a false identity to open a company, he said it was because of the “excessive bureaucracy” in the institutions that deal with company registration.

Sarmento said he had been in detention for almost two years and claimed he did not know why. But he admitted picking up money in one account and depositing it in another. It was the way the ransom money moved from account to account which had led the prosecutors to the suspects.

Sarmento and Sitoe both said they had been used by people who are not under arrest.

The presiding judge, Laurindo Mahoche, has ordered the start of separate proceedings against others, now on the run, who had actually seized the kidnap victim.