Maputo, 13 Mar (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) has arrested a 44-year-old Mozambican citizen in connection with the kidnapping of a woman on 1 November in Maputo.
According to SERNIC spokesperson, Hilário Lole, who was speaking to reporters on Tuesday, in Maputo, the suspect is a printing shop worker who took part in the preparations for the crime, in which his role was to issue false registration plates for the car used in the kidnapping.
“Information in SERNIC’s possession indicates that the suspect took part in requesting license plates affixed to the vehicle used for the kidnapping”, he said.
“These individuals look for means of transport to carry out these kidnappings”, he added.
According to Lole, the suspect was contacted by another individual whose name appears in SERNIC’s files as having participated in several kidnappings in Maputo city.
“We have received information about a relationship between this individual and another who is said to be the mastermind of the kidnappings on Mozambican soil, and who is currently in prison in South Africa”, Lole said. Steps were now being taken to bring the supposed mastermind back to Mozambique.
The suspect denies all the accusations against him. “I’m not involved in any kidnapping”, he claimed. “I’m just a normal citizen minding his own business. I’ve never run away from the police and I walk around the city at ease, I have never been at any police station”, he said.
But he admitted a connection with the man described as the mastermind behind kidnappings.
“He (the kidnapper) always came to do jobs with me, he came to decorate his car, he came to smoke glass, so we got to know each other like this”, he said.
(AIM)
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