Mozambique: London trial in ‘hidden debts’ case seen dragging on into 2024

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Mozambique: London trial in ‘hidden debts’ case seen dragging on into 2024

8:55 CAT | 05 Dec 2022

File photo: VOA

The trial in the case relating to Mozambique’s ‘hidden debts’ at London’s Commercial Court could be postponed or drag on into 2024, due to delays in the disclosure of procedural documents, according to lawyers. Jonathan Adkin, who is representing Mozambique in the legal proceedings initiated by the Office of the Attorney General (PGR), requested an extension until 27 January, 2023 to meet disclosure obligations.

According to the British lawyer, this extension is necessary to gather all the required documents; he said that the attorney general’s office has already provided more than 100,000 items. The disclosure and sharing of documentary evidence is mandatory and an essential step in British proceedings, since it is when the different parties make available to each other documents relevant to the case so that each can prepare their respective arguments.

“We are not as pessimistic as the other parties and we think it will be possible to meet the timetable and start the trial in October 2023,” he told a procedural management hearing on Friday. However, he suggested to the judge, Robin Knowles, that “it might be prudent … to set aside January 2024” to hear part of this trial, rather than its being scheduled to end in December. Russian bank VTB has also foreseen delays, blaming international sanctions to which it is subject due to the war in Ukraine, as has shipping group Privinvest, which has cited difficulties created by the banking crisis in Lebanon, where it has activities.

However, along with another defendant, Credit Suisse, represented by lawyer Andrew Hunter, it warned that an extension could have a “chain reaction” on the rest of the stages of the case up until the trial. At the end of the session, the judge acknowledged that the case had been characterised by “challenges – some expected, some unforeseen” and decided “with the greatest reserve” to grant the request for an extension until 27 January. “I am not going to change the trial date now,” he added, deferring to other preliminary hearings on that issue.

Meanwhile, the judge granted a request by Credit Suisse for the office of Mozambique’s Attorney General to identify which public officials or politicians it contacted requesting access to the electronic devices and personal email accounts they used for work, and which ones had accepted this.

According to a decision published on Wednesday, several Mozambique government officials and civil servants regularly used personal email accounts to receive and send official electronic communications.

Credit Suisse has submitted an initial list of 33 names of individuals in which it is interested, but according to the Attorney General’s Office, at least one has already died. Adkins has also said that he intends to challenge the ruling.

The London case was initiated in 2019 by the Attorney General’s Office on behalf of Mozambique to try to cancel part of the more than $2.7bn (€2.6bn) of loans secured from foreign banks in 2013 and 2014.

The loans were guaranteed by the then government, headed at the time by Armando Guebuza, without the knowledge of parliament and the country’s Administrative Tribunal, or of foreign lenders.

Source: Lusa