Mozambique: Court officials accused of embezzlement

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Mozambique: Court officials accused of embezzlement

3:27 CAT | 24 Mar 2025

File photo: Zumbo FM

The authorities in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado have arrested two senior officials in the provincial Administrative Tribunal, accused of stealing two million meticais (about 31,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) from the tribunal’s coffers, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Mediafax”.

According to the Cabo Delgado provincial attorney, Amilton Minete, the two men under arrest are the head of the provincial department of finance and the head of the statistics and internal control department. They were not named in the report.

Minete said the thefts took place between April and November 2024, through bank transfers from the Tribunal’s account to two accounts held in the names of the officials, and an account belonging to a private company owned by one of the accused.

If the two men are found guilty of embezzlement, said Minete, they could be sentenced to prison terms of between eight and 12 years.

Warrants for the arrest of the two men were issued on 14 March, but they both fled. They were only picked up after five days in which they were absent, both from their homes and from their workplaces.

Minete believed there had been a leak of information, whereby somebody had tipped off the two men that they were about to be arrested. His office was now trying to detect the source of the leak.

Source: AIM