851122E “HIDDEN DEBTS”: VERDICT CONFIRMED FOR 30 NOVEMBER
Maputo, 24 Nov (AIM) – The Maputo City Court on Thursday confirmed that the verdict and sentence in the case of the “hidden debts”, Mozambique’s greatest financial scandal, will be read next Tuesday, 30 November.
This is the same date announced some months ago by the trial judge Efigenio Baptista. It dashes any hopes for a further delay.
According to the court spokesperson, José Macaringue, at a Maputo press conference, the verdict will be read in the giant tent installed on the grounds of the Maputo Top Security Prison, which is where the trial was held.
Macaringue believed it will take the judge five days to read the verdict. The entire proceedings will be broadcast live. It took Baptista many months to draw up his verdict because of the great complexity of the case, and the thousands of pages of evidence submitted.
The trial began on 23 August 2021, and the prosecution and defence gave their final statements in March this year. Initially, there were 19 defendants, but the prosecution dropped the charges against one of them.
The term “hidden debts” refers to the loans of over two billion dollars obtained in 2013 and 2014 by three fraudulent, security-related companies, Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management) from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia.
The loans were only possible because the government of the time, under the then President, Armando Guebuza, signed illegal loan guarantees which violated the Mozambican constitution and the 2013 and 2014 budget laws. When all three companies went predictably bankrupt, the Mozambican state became liable to repay the loans.
At the heart of the scandal is the Security and Intelligence Service (SISE) which effectively ran the three companies. The SISE head of economic intelligence, Antonio Carlos do Rosario, was the chairperson of all three companies. He and the SISE General Director of the time, Gregorio Leao, are among the main accused.
Alongside them in the dock are Ndambi Guebuza, the oldest son of the former President, Guebuza’s former political adviser, Renato Matusse, his secretary, Ines Moiane, and 13 others.
Key people involved in the scandal are not on trial. They include Guebuza’s Finance Minister, Manuel Chang, who signed the illegal loan guarantees. Chang has been in South African police detention since December 2018 while legal battles take place to decide whether he should be extradited to Mozambique or to the United States.
Charges have been filed against Chang in Maputo, and he will face trial if and when he returns to the Mozambican capital.
The Mozambican authorities also want to put on trial senior officials of the Abu Dhabi-based group, Privinvest, who were in league with Chang and corrupt Credit Suisse bankers in the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes.
(AIM)
Pf/ (570)
