Mozambique: Police detain two suspected of kidnapping Maputo businessman – Watch

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Mozambique: Police detain two suspected of kidnapping Maputo businessman – Watch

6:01 CAT | 30 Jan 2024

Photo: Notícias

Mozambican police on Monday announced the detention of two men for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a businessman on 20 January in downtown Maputo, but said that the victim was “still in captivity”.

The spokesman for Mozambique’s national criminal investigation service (Sernic), Hilário Lole, told a press conference that the two men were also involved in the attempted kidnapping of a furniture shop manager, which took place on 16 January in the Mozambican capital.

“There is very strong information about their participation in these last two cases” and they are “individuals who have been wanted, we had search warrants against them,” said Lole.

One of the detainees appears wielding a pistol in an image recorded by video surveillance cameras in the area where the businessman was kidnapped on the 20th, said the Sernic spokesman.

“When the images from the cameras are analysed in detail, one of them appears there wielding a pistol-type weapon,” said Hilário Lole.

The two men are also accused of involvement in kidnappings that took place in 2021 and 2023, Lole added.

“They will be brought before the criminal investigating judge at the Maputo City Judicial Court, for the purpose of legalising their arrest,” he said.

The Sernic spokesman said that the victim of the kidnapping that took place on the 20th is still in captivity and work is continuing on his rescue.

The police are also working to neutralise other members of the “gang”, said Hilário Lole.

Last week, Mozambique’s Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), the country’s largest employers’ organisation, said it intended to meet with the government before taking a position on the new kidnapping cases.

For the second time in two days, the CTA postponed a press conference it had called to comment on the new wave of kidnappings that have recently hit Mozambican cities.

Speaking to Lusa, a source from the organisation said that the postponement was due to the failure to hold a meeting with the government to discuss the impact of this type of crime on the business environment and the economy.

“It’s a routine meeting with the government, but in view of recent developments, the impact of kidnappings on the business climate and the economy was to be discussed,” said the same source.

The meeting with the executive is important for businesspeople to express their position, he continued.

The businessman kidnapped on the 20th had already been kidnapped in 2011, making him the first known victim of this type of crime in Mozambique.

On the 16th, a furniture shop manager was wounded in the abdomen during a kidnap attempt that was thwarted by people throwing stones at the perpetrators, Maputo police spokesman Leonel Muchina told Lusa at the time.

In November, Mozambique’s Central Office for Combating Organised and Transnational Crime (GCCOT) brought charges against three officials allegedly involved in the kidnapping and death of a 57-year-old man in December 2022.

One of the defendants is a former member of the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) and another is an official from a provincial directorate of justice, sentenced to 23 years in prison for involvement in other crimes, including kidnapping, but acquitted at second instance, the GCCOT said in a statement.

Watch.