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Lawyers Alexande Chivale and Isálcio Mahanjane told a Maputo press conference that the period of preventive detention of their clients had expired on Thursday. The law states that preventive detention cannot exceed four months. [Picture: Notícias]
Lawyers for the family of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Friday demanded the immediate release from detention of Guebuza’s oldest son, Ndambi Guebuza, and his former private secretary, Ines Moiane.
Both have been held in preventive detention since February, accused of involvement in the enormous scandal of Mozambique’s “hidden debts”.
The lawyers, Alexandre Chivale and Isalcio Mahanjane, told a Maputo press conference that the period of preventive detention of their clients had expired, and they should therefore be released immediately.
The law, they said, states that preventive detention cannot exceed four months. That four month limit was reached on Thursday. The Maputo City Court should have either informed Guebuza and Moiane that they were being charged or released them.
The lawyers said that, since neither had happened, on Friday morning they had made a habeas corpus application to the Supreme Court.
“As from zero hours on 26 July, the accused are in a state of illegal imprisonment”, declared Chivale. “Under the terms of our legislation the consequence of illegal imprisonment is immediate release”.
This was in the law, he stressed, and it did not depend on any political, economic or other considerations.
The Supreme Court now has a week to decide on the habeas corpus application. “We intend to protect the rights of our clients”, said Chivale. “One of the ways of doing that is to let society know that as from today, the City Court is in a situation of illegality”.
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Documents from the public prosecutors, cited by the independent newssheet “Mediafax” in March, allege that Ndambi Guebuza played a key role in ensuring that loans to the fraudulent companies Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company), Proindicus and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management) went ahead in 2013 and 2014.
Two European banks, Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia, lent over two billion dollars to the three companies. Loans on this scale to recently formed companies with no track record, and run by the security and intelligence service (SISE) were only possible because government officials, notably Finance Minister Manuel Chang, signed loan guarantees – pledging that, if the companies did not repay, the Mozambican state would be liable.
Key to the fraud was the Abu Dhabi based company Privinvest, which became the sole contractor for the three Mozambican companies, providing them with boats and other assets at vastly inflated prices.
But initially, back in 2011, it was not clear that the Privinvest scheme would win Mozambican political approval. According to the prosecutors, one of the Mozambicans working on the project, Teofilo Nhangumele, contacted his old friend Bruno Langa, a SISE officer, to ask what could be done about the “stagnation” and how matters could be unblocked.
Langa said he would talk to his friend and business partner, Ndambi Guebuza. The latter then promised to bring the matter to the attention of his father. Ndambi, Langa, and Nhangomele met with a Privinvest representative, Batsetsane Thlokoane, and said they would only do what Privinvest was asking, if they receved adequate “thanks”.
Contacts were then made with senior Privinvest salesman, Jean Boustani, who assured Ndambi Guebuza that he would receive “a fascinating gratification”. It was on that basis that Ndambi took the project to his father, who did indeed give the green light, but insisted that implementation should be in the hands of SISE.
A few weeks later Nhangumele exchanged emails with Boustani agreed that Privinvest woud reserve 50 million US dollars “to massage the system”.
Visits to branches of Privinvest followed. Ndambi Guebuza, Langa, Nhangumele, and Antonio do Rosario, the SISE officer who would later become chairperson of all three fraudulent companies went to Abu Dhabi, and discussed with Boustani how much money each of them would receive
According to the prosecutors, the total value of the bribes remained fixed at 50 million dollars – Langa and Nhangumele would each receive 8.5 million, but 33 million would go to Ndambi Guebuza. It was agreed that the three should later divide this money with other Mozambicans complicit in the scheme.
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