MEP takes up case of Portuguese businessman missing since 2016

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MEP takes up case of Portuguese businessman missing since 2016

11:47 CAT | 04 Feb 2020

File photo: DW

MEP Isabel Santos of the Socialist Party expressed concern over the “silence” and “lack of transparency” of Mozambican authorities over the disappearance in 2016 of Portuguese businessman Américo Sebastião in central Mozambique.

Isabel Santos addresses the case in a letter sent to the Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, to which Lusa had access.

“Silences and gaps appear which are incomprehensible for the family and others”, she writes.

The disappearance of Américo Sebastião cannot fall into oblivion.

“The worst that could happen in this case – particularly for Mozambique, along with its reputation as an entity of good – would be to give the idea of lack of transparency”.

In addition, the feeling that not all the investigations were followed up for the Sebastião family to have the answers to which it is entitled would be negative.

She lists a number of situations that she believes cast doubts on the commitment to clarify the case:

The apparent unwillingness of the Mozambican authorities to accept the cooperation of the Portuguese judicial police in clarifying the case and the absence of regular contact between the Attorney General’s Office of Mozambique and the Sebastião family, for information on initiatives and steps taken in relation to the case.

She also notes the fact that the former MEP Ana Gomes did not obtain all the meetings she requested from the Mozambican entities relevant to the case when she visited Mozambique in March 2019.

“As an MEP, I will also trigger the mechanisms at my disposal to alert the European institutions to this humanitarian situation. And for the right that the Sebastião family has for answers”.

Américo Sebastião was kidnapped on July 29, 2016 in Nhamapadza, in the province of Sofala, central Mozambique, and it is still unknown what happened to him.

The agricultural and logging businessman was taken by strangers in a car when he was at a service station, at a time when the area was the scene of clashes between the defence and security forces and the armed arm of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo).

During his January visit to Mozambique, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in Maputo that “the Portuguese state has provided not only permanent contacts” with family members, “but also support”.

At the end of a meeting with the Portuguese President, the Mozambican Head of State, Filipe Nyusi, said that the case was being reviewed, as well as the steps to be taken for justice, saying he maintains regular contact with the Sebastião family.

Source: Lusa