Supreme Court adds influence peddling to indictment of three of the “hidden debts” defendants | Mozambique

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Supreme Court adds influence peddling to indictment of three of the “hidden debts” defendants | Mozambique

3:26 CAT | 12 Mar 2021

File photo: Noticias

Mozambique’s Supreme Court has added the crime of influence peddling to the charge sheet against three of the 19 defendants, in the case involving the so-called “hidden debts” contracted by public enterprises in 2013 and 2014, the institution said in a statement on Friday.

According to the statement, these three defendants are Ndambi Guebuza, son of former president Armando Guebuza, Inês Moiante, former secretary of former president Armando Guebuza, and Renato Matusse, former adviser of former president Armando Guebuza,

The court decided “to change the legal-penal classification [given that] the requirements for the indicative imputation of the crime of influence peddling have been met,” it states.

The Supreme Court justices also decided to strike down the charge of passive corruption to commit an unlawful act, by way of material authorship, which was faced by eight [unnamed] defendants in the main ‘hidden debts’ case.

According to the statement, the court decided to “change the aggravating and mitigating circumstances” of the defendants as outlined in the case papers, but does not go into detail on the matter.

The statement was released following a ruling by the Supreme Court that 11 of the 18 detainees in the main investigation into the hidden debts could await trial at home.

Zulficar Ahmad, Fabião Mabunda, Manuel Matusse, Maria Ines Moiane, Sérgio Namburete and Khessaujee Pulchand will be released on bail.

Defendants Mbanda Henning, Simione Mahumane, Crimildo Manjate, Naimo Quimbine and Sidónio Sitoe will be released under statements of identity and residence.

The Supreme Court decided to “maintain the preventive detention imposed on the defendants”: Ndambi Guebuza, Bruno Langa, Angela Leão, Gregório Leão, Cipriano Mutota, Teófilo Nhangumele and António do Rosário.

The highest bail amount is 10.1 million meticais (€114,000), imposed on Fabião Mabunda, and the lowest is the 309,000 meticais (€3,492) to be paid by Zulficar Ahmad.

The Supreme Court ruled after appeals were filed by defence counsel.

The hidden debts relate to loans totalling $2.2 billion that were contracted from the UK subsidiaries of investment banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia by Mozambique state-owned companies Proindicus, Ematum and MAM.

The loans were guaranteed by the Mozambican government, but without communication with parliament or the country’s Administrative Tribunal.

The first arrests in the case (in Mozambique) were made more than two years ago.

The Mozambican public prosecutor accuses the defendants in the main proceedings – still without any trial having been scheduled – of criminal association, blackmail, passive corruption, embezzlement, abuse of office or function, violation of management rules and falsification of documents.

In addition to the main proceedings, the Mozambican court opened separate cases in which several other people are suspected of participating in the scheme, including former finance minister Manuel Chang, former directors of the Bank of Mozambique, and former executives of Credit Suisse, one of the banking institutions that made the loans.

Source: Lusa