Mozambique: Court rejects list of 35 witnesses – Noticias

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Mozambique: Court rejects list of 35 witnesses – Noticias

8:35 CAT | 21 Aug 2021

Photo: O País

Maputo City Judicial Court has dismissed a request that it hear 35 witnesses named on a list submitted by the defence lawyers of some of the defendants in the ‘hidden debts’ case scheduled to start on Monday, allegedly for not respecting legal precepts, Noticias reports.

The application was submitted by attorneys Alexandre Chivale and Isálcio Mahanjane. In an order that ‘Notícias’ has seen, dated August 16 and signed by the judge in the case, Efigénio Baptista, it is stated that the two lawyers “have made a manifestly reprehensible use of the case or of the procedural means, with the end of achieving an illegal objective, preventing the discovery of the truth, hindering the action of justice or delaying, without serious grounds, the case”.

According to the order, the two lawyers are indulging in a dishonest, trivial, delaying action, with the intention of harming conditions favourable to a “good and fair decision of the lawsuit”.

The lawyers requested that the court trying the “hidden debts” case hears as witnesses [among others] Sherif Manscur, Agostinho Mondlane, Lázaro Lopes Menete, Carlos Agostinho do Rosário, Sergio Pantie, António Boene, Helena Mateus Khida, João Noa Rafael Sanete , Tinga Maquetela, Nuno Ndonga, Omar Mithá, Claudino Mamudo Foi, Caifadine Manasse, Chinguane Mabote, Fernando Sumbana Júnior, Pedro Chaúque, Celso Ismael Correia, Carlos Mesquita, Danilson Vaz, Eneas Comiche, Lucas Chomera Jeremias, Jaime Bessa Neto, Venâncio Mondlane, Francisco Mussane Muchanheia, Luciano André de Castro, José Mateus Kathupa, Esmeralda Muthemba, Eiko Cassamo and Ana Senda Coanai.

According to the document cited, the applicants only list but do not claim or demonstrate the named individuals’ relevance to the search for material truth in the case. “It was up to the applicant to allege and prove that those individuals have direct knowledge of the facts that are the object of the case. It is not the function of the court to guess the meaning that the “parties” want to give to their generic statements, nor to make up for their deficiencies,” the order reads.

The document also considers that some of the witnesses included on the list presented by the two lawyers are interested parties in the process, and as such cannot appear in court in this role [of witness]. This is the case, for example, of Jean Boustani, Arlindo João Ngale and President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi.

Source: Noticias