Mozambique: Kidnappers release businessman Firoz Judge – Carta

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Mozambique: Kidnappers release businessman Firoz Judge – Carta

1:49 CAT | 21 Apr 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. Screen grab of footage of Firoz Judge's kidnapping on March 15. [Source: Anti-Raptos Beira]

Businessman Firoz Mussa Judge, 60 years old, owner of well-known shoe shop Sopropé, on Karl Marx Avenue in Maputo city, was released by his kidnappers last Wednesday night (19-4) in the Machava area, on the outskirts of Matola city, Greater Maputo region. Firoz, who is the owner of a vast real estate empire, had been kidnapped on the 5th of March at around 7 p.m. y by four individuals armed with AKM.

Firoz is released from captivity over a month and a half later. “Carta” sources said that his release was only possible because the family paid ‘a ransom of millions’. During these days, this case has reportedly never been addressed by the Police.

The ‘drop off’ in the Machava area might lead to assume that Firoz Judge’s captivity was located in a suburban area. However, one never knows. In her report to Parliament yesterday, PGR Beatriz Buchii said that the kidnapping industry has been making ‘ tactical changes’.

A recent sophistication of the industry, said the Attorney General of the Republic, is related to moving the places of captivity and the means and forms of payment of the ransom value. Buchili says that the previous practice pointed to the location of captivity in suburban neighbourhoods, but currently they are located in prime areas of cities, and payments are made in large amounts and in cash or using cryptographic currency.

READ: Mozambique: Kidnappers demand ransom in crypto, informal means – Top Public Prosecutor

When he was kidnapped in March, Firoz Judge was in the vicinity of Burglar Alert, a security company, with a friend, Ebrahim Alibhai Issa (identified as the son of the late Alibhai Issa), who was shot in the leg while trying to stop the kidnapping. According to “Carta” sources, Firoz had gone out to dinner.

In addition to the shoe and real estate business, Firoz Mussa is known as one of the most important “lenders” in the city of Maputo, and there are those who relate his kidnapping to this activity, suspecting that this kidnapping was about settling scores. Firoz Judge, a ‘Carta’ source said, has always moved around with bodyguards but, curiously, on the day of his kidnapping he was unprotected. The kidnapping took place about 200 meters from the Ministry of the Interior. A shot was fired, the one which hit Firoz’s companion, but nobody reacted, as usual.

Source: Carta de Moçambique