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Mozambique: PGR wants to hear ex-President because of new facts on “hidden debts”
2:51 CAT | 23 Sep 2020
File photo: Lusa
The Attorney General of the Republic of Mozambique (PGR) wants to question the former Mozambican president Armando Guebuza as part of the ‘hidden debts’ process, in light of the emergence of new facts, the institution told Lusa today
The confirmation comes after information citing a meeting of the State Council appeared in Mozambican media at the end of last week.
A PGR source told Lusa that the hearing of Armando Guebuza would take place on a date yet to be scheduled, following the consent given by the State Council for the ex-President of the Republic to be questioned – something that Guebuza agreed to, while maintaining that he was being targeted by “a campaign of attempted political assassination, using the judiciary”, which generates “mistrust”, STV television reported at the time.
The source did not specify the capacity in which Armando Guebuza will be heard by the PGR, nor did it specify to what jurisdiction the case or cases covered by the hearing might correspond, given that there are processes involving the so-called ‘hidden debts’ underway in Mozambique, the USA and the U.K.
A note from the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a Mozambican civil society organisation, considers the “curious question” that Armando Guebuza raises “at a time when he is vulnerable and politically fragile” in relation to the PGR, an organ “which he helped to build with total confidence when he was in charge of the Presidency of the Republic”.
The CDD describes Armando Guebuza’s alleged position as “intimidation” and questions whether the PGR will remain staunch before the former head of state.
If heard, it will be the second time that Armando Guebuza will have been interrogated by the PGR, the first being after the emergence of the ‘hidden debts’ matter in 2016, when the former head of state was also heard by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) of the Assembly of the Republic created to investigate the case.
Lusa was unable to get a reaction from the former Mozambican president, or from the family’s lawyer, Alexandre Chivale, about the information related to the hearing.
The ‘hidden debts’ matter relates to loans worth US$2.2 billion (€2 billion) contracted between 2013 and 2014 with the British branches of the investment banks Credit Suisse and VTB by the Mozambican state-owned companies Proindicus, Ematum and MAM.
The loans were endorsed by the government led by Armando Guebuza, without the knowledge of parliament or the country’s Administrative Court.
Among the 19 defendants detained in Mozambique are figures from the circle close to the former president, including one of his sons, Ndambi Guebuza, and his personal secretary, Inês Moaine.
The Mozambican public prosecutor accuses the defendants of criminal association, blackmail, passive corruption, embezzlement, abuse of office or function, violation of management rules and falsification of documents, but has not yet scheduled any trial.
The US in 2019 prosecuted a hidden debts case trial, on the grounds that money in the scheme had passed through the country. Three former Credit Suisse bankers pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money, but key shipping intermediary. This prompted Mozambique to file a lawsuit in London seeking to annul ProIndicus’ US$622 million (€552.6 million) debt to Credit Suisse, claiming compensation for all losses from the hidden debts scandal.
Source: Lusa
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