Mozambique: Lawyers call for independent, unmanipulated news coverage of “hidden debts” trial

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Mozambique: Lawyers call for independent, unmanipulated news coverage of “hidden debts” trial

8:01 CAT | 13 Aug 2021

Photo: O País

The president of the Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) on Thursday called on the media to cover the ‘hidden debts’ process with independence, avoiding the public lynching of defendants.

The trial of the so-called hidden debts case, the biggest corruption case in Mozambique’s history, begins on 23 March and will see 19 defendants in the dock, with 70 witnesses.

The OAM’s president, Duarte Casimiro, was speaking at a press conference to announce the organisation’s intervention as an assistant in the trial, in which it will assist the Public Prosecutor.

“The OAM calls on the media to provide transparent and independent coverage of the trial,” Casimiro said.

He said that the press should ensure that the Mozambican people are informed, updated and enlightened about the contours of the case.

He also asked the media to carry out their mission while respecting the principles of the presumption of innocence and the independence of the courts.

Duarte Casimiro urged journalists who will cover the trial to avoid public lynching, misinformation and adulteration of the truth.

“The media cannot be used as a weapon in an extra-procedural case to the benefit or detriment of one or other party,” he said.

The OAM will intervene as an assistant in the trial of the case of the hidden debts through its president, former President Flávio Menete and Gilberto Correia and lawyers Filipe Sitoe, João Nhampossa, Arlindo Guilamba and Vicente Manjate.

Among the 19 defendants is Armando Ndambi Guebuza, eldest son of Armando Guebuza, the former private secretary of the former president Inês Moiane and his former political advisor Renato Matusse.

Also accused are the former director-general of the State Information and Security Service (SISE), the Mozambican “spies”, Gregório Leão, and the former director of economic intelligence of the institution António Carlos do Rosário.

Twelve of the 19 defendants are on bail, while seven are awaiting trial in remand.

The hidden debts are related to loans worth $2.2 billion (about €2 billion), contracted between 2013 and 2014 from the British subsidiaries of investment banks Credit Suisse and VTB by Mozambican state companies Proindicus, Ematum and MAM.

The loans were secretly endorsed by the Frelimo government, led by Armando Guebuza, without the knowledge of parliament or the Administrative Court.

As well as the main case, the Mozambican justice system has opened an autonomous case in which several other people are suspected of participating in the scheme, including former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, former directors of the Bank of Mozambique, and former executives of Credit Suisse, the bank that made the loans possible.

Legal proceedings have also been opened in the United States and England.

Source: Lusa