Mozambique: President should respond to London court summons in hidden debts case – NGOs

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Mozambique: President should respond to London court summons in hidden debts case – NGOs

4:29 CAT | 07 Jun 2021

File photo: Lusa

The Budget Monitoring Forum (FMO) said on Monday that the Mozambican President should respond to the judicial summons of Privinvest in the hidden debts case, considering that there is no impediment in the light of the Constitution or international law.

“The President of Mozambique can and should respond to Privinvest’s summons in the London Court,” said a statement issued today by FMO, a platform comprising several Mozambican NGOs.

At issue is the fact that the shipping group Privinvest was authorised on 23 May to summon the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, as a party to be heard in the hidden debt case underway in London.

For FMO, although he enjoys immunity, the Constitution of the Republic and international law do not prevent the head of state from answering in court for acts committed before his mandate as president.

“It is the Constitution itself that does not prohibit acts of a civil nature committed by the President of the Republic and which are not of public management from being susceptible to being heard by ordinary courts, whether national or international,” the FMO stresses.

According to the organisation, ignoring the summons would be a “disrespect to the Mozambicans that he represents”, taking into account that the head of state, in the exercise of his duties, should be guided by a posture that is “as transparent as possible”.

“If the President does not respond to Privinvest’s notification in court, he will be doing a disservice to people including his party (Frelimo), since he will be accepting the facts contained in that procedural document,” FMO concluded.

The Mozambican Attorney General’s Office started the process in the British courts in 2019 to try to cancel the $622 million (510.7 million euros) debt of state-owned company ProIndicus to Credit Suisse and ask for compensation to cover all losses resulting from the hidden debts scandal.

The hidden debts of the Mozambican state of around US$2.2 billion (1.8 billion euros at the current exchange rate) were incurred between 2013 and 2014, in the form of loans with the British subsidiaries of investment banks Credit Suisse and VTB, on behalf of Mozambican state companies Proindicus, Ematum and MAM.

Source: Lusa