Mozambique: Ex-transport minister gets 10-year prison term in Embraer plane purchase case

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Ex-transport minister gets 10-year prison term in Embraer plane purchase case

7:30 CAT | 13 Sep 2021

Picture: Noticias

Mozambique’s former Transport and Communications Minister Paulo Zucula was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison for corruption in a case involving the purchase of aircraft by state-owned airline Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM).

In the same case, the Judicial Court of Maputo acquitted former president of LAM José Viegas on the grounds that the crime of economic participation in a business he was accused of was time-barred.

Former General Electric Oil&Gas executive Mateus Zimba was also sentenced to 10 years in prison, accused of having set up the front company used to circulate bribe money.

The Maputo Court sentenced Paulo Zucula and Mateus Zimba to pay around US$1.8 million (1.5 million euros), “according to each one’s benefit”.

The two defendants were also ordered to pay the maximum amount of court tax, the amount of which was not specified.

The seized assets and frozen bank accounts of Paulo Zucula and Mateus Zimba revert to the State, according to the ruling.

In relation to the former president of LAM, the court decided that the assets should be returned to him and the bank accounts that were under judicial jurisdiction should be unfrozen.

As he left the court, the former minister refused to react to the sentence that was applied to him.

Tomás Timbana, Mateus Zimba’s lawyer, said he will appeal the sentence, considering that the court ignored the evidence produced and convicted his constituent for crimes that are time-barred.

In his turn, Jose Viegas expressed relief at the acquittal, stressing that the decision ends “five years of struggle.

The Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office accused the three defendants of having planned a scheme to inflate LAM’s purchase of two aircraft from Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, in 2009, setting a price of US$31.1 million (26.4 million euros) against the real price of around US$30 million (25.5 million euros).

Prosecutors believe that the price was inflated to bribe Paulo Zucula and Mateus Zimba. Both were charged with economic participation in a business deal and money laundering.

José Viegas was charged with economic participation in business, allegedly for having pressured Embraer to raise the price of aircraft and make payments to the other two defendants, but he was not charged in the case file with receiving any undue payment.

Source: Lusa