Mozambique: Alleged kidnappers on trial in Beira

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Mozambique: Alleged kidnappers on trial in Beira

8:17 CAT | 22 Jul 2022

Screen grab: Miramar

The Sofala provincial court, sitting in the central Mozambican city of Beira, on Wednesday began the trial of three people accused of attempting to kidnap a citizen of Indian nationality last December.

According to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, the three men (whose names were not given in the report) initially made a full confession. They said they intended to demand a ransom of 20 million meticais (about 313,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) for the release of their intended victim.

But, as the trial began, they changed their story, and told the court they had nothing to do with kidnappings. They said they had only confessed because they had been threatened and tortured by agents of the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic).

The prosecutor, Eugenio da Graca, did not buy this change of line. He said the Public Prosecutor’s Office believed that there is plenty of evidence showing that the three men are guilty of the attempted kidnapping, and this evidence is already in the records of the preliminary investigation.

The prosecution argues that two of the men were obeying orders from the third, who gave them 10,000 meticais to rent two houses that would be used to imprison the victim while the ransom was being negotiated.

However, the supposed mastermind of the kidnapping told the court he had intended to use the 10,000 meticais to buy gold in Angonia district, in the western province of Tete.

The three men admitted to meeting together, but claimed such encounters were for business, not for crime.

The owner of the house that the alleged kidnappers had wanted to use as a private prison said that when he reached agreement on the rent to be paid, he had no idea that the house was to be used for criminal purposes.

The next session of the trial will include evidence from the Sernic agents who identified, investigated and detained the suspects.

Source: AIM