Maputo, 10 Mar (AIM) – A businessman found dead on Sunday in Bilene district, in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, was murdered, but not kidnapped, according to the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic).
Cited by Tuesday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”, the Gaza Sernic spokesperson, Zaceu Mucambe, denied the version given by the businessman’s family that he had been abducted, prior to his body being dumped in the bush in the Bilene locality of Mazivila.
Mucambe said the victim, whose name has not been released, was killed because of an unpaid debt. He was dealing in second hand car parts and accessories. The spare parts, Mucambe added, “were of doubtful origin”.
He said the police regarded this as a case, not of kidnapping, but of “aggravated homicide”.
The victim was murdered after his killers tried, and failed, to force him to pay a substantial debt. His family paid 200,000 meticais (about 3,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) but it was not enough. The businessman was said to owe over a million meticais.
Sernic said it has other details on the case, but declined to make them public.
(AIM)
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