Maputo, 21 Jan (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) has announced that Pedro Ferraz Correia dos Reis, the Portuguese banker who was found dead on Monday in a hotel bathroom, committed suicide using both a knife and rat poison.
Dos Reis had been the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Commercial and Investment Bank (BCI) for 10 years.
According to Sernic spokesperson Hilário Lole, who was speaking to reporters on Tuesday, in Maputo, there is no doubt that Dos Reis committed suicide, and was not murdered.
“The work carried out by the Police, in coordination with the Forensic Medicine Department of Maputo Central Hospital and magistrates from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), confirmed there is no doubt that this is a case of suicide, not homicide, as rumoured. He took his own life using sharp instruments and a rat poison, (commonly known as Ratex)”, he said.
Lole explained that the images captured by CCTV cameras show that Dos Reis “used a kitchen knife he took from his home kitchen and the poison which he bought at a supermarket.”
“He left his office at around 14.00 and first went to his kitchen, where he took a knife. Then he went to a shop where he bought two more knives, which were also found inside his car. He then went to another shop on the coast road, where he bought rat poison”, he said.
“He locked himself in a bathroom at the Polana Hotel and stabbed himself in the neck, wrists, thighs and chest near his heart. He bought two knives at the supermarket, but did not use them because they were too light”, he added.
(AIM)
Ad/pf (284)
