Mozambique: Businessman release after huge ransom

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Mozambique: Businessman release after huge ransom

3:54 CAT | 17 Sep 2020

File photo: O País

A gang who kidnapped Mozambican businessman Artur Magaia on 11 August released him on Tuesday – but only after receiving a ransom of over a million US dollars, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”.

Magaia has now been hospitalised in the intensive care unit of a Maputo private clinic. Sources close to the case told “O Pais” that Magaia began to feel ill when he was in captivity, and his situation has continued to deteriorate.

“We learned today that he was released on Tuesday, but we still have no details,” Benjamina Chaves, provincial director of National Criminal Investigation Service SERNIC told Lusa on Wednesday.

Benjamina Chaves also said that the businessman is hospitalised and in intensive care at the Heart Institute (Icor) of Mozambique, where he was admitted at 9 p.m. local time (8 p.m. in Lisbon) on Tuesday.

“Due to his condition, we were not allowed to enter to talk to him. We will wait until he recovers,” said Benjamina Chaves.

Artur Magaia, the owner of Empatel Serviços Aduaneiros, was kidnapped on 10 August in the Belo Horizonte neighbourhood, an upmarket area of Matola, suburbs of Maputo, where he lives.

The businessman was approached by two vehicles and taken by force to one of the cars of the alleged kidnappers, having remained in captivity.

Since the beginning of 2020, the Mozambican authorities have registered a total of nine kidnappings, whose victims are always entrepreneurs or their relatives.

Of the cases registered this year, two victims were rescued by the authorities in Maputo, and a third victim was released in conditions still to be clarified, besides Artur Magaia.

Source: AIM / Lusa