Maputo, 17 Aug (AIM) – The Maputo provincial law court, sitting in the southern city of Matola, on Friday sentenced the leader of Mozambique’s most notorious poaching rings, Ernesto Valoi (better known as “Boss Navara”) to 27 years imprisonment.
Valoi must also pay 16 years of daily fines (to an amount not specificed in the reports of the court proceedings), compensation to the Mozambican state of 11 million meticais (about 141,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate). Good valued at nine million meticais were seized from Valoi’s home.
The court sentenced one of his accomplices, Paulo Zucula, to 24 years imprisonment, fines to be paid over 16 years, and goods valued at 17 million meticais were confiscated from him. He must pay the state compensation of four million meticais.
The court found them both guilty of several murders, financing terrorism, poaching, the sale of protected species, money laundering, the use of banned weapons, the use of forged documents, the sale and purchase of illegal guns and vehicles, and criminal conspiracy. Some of these crimes were committed in South Africa.
The trial began on 26 December 2023, and the court’s sentence was postponed three times.
The reports of the trial, on Radio Mozambique and on Facebook, gave very few details of the crimes committed by Valoi and Zucula.
(AIM)
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