The National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) assured on Thursday (22) that investigations are continuing into the death of Portuguese citizen Pedro Ferraz Correia dos Reis, administrator of Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI), who was found dead in a hotel in Maputo on January 15.
“The investigation has not been closed, we have not announced that the investigation has been closed, investigations are still ongoing,” SERNIC spokesman Hilário Lole told Lusa, refuting interpretations that the case had been closed.
Although the forensic report, combined with evidence gathered at the scene, points to suicide, the authorities acknowledge that there are still elements under analysis that could definitively clarify the circumstances of the death. “It may have been suicide, but the suicide may have been provoked. So, there are these elements that still need to be investigated,” Hilário Lole emphasized.
Initially treated as a homicide by the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), the case evolved after the presentation of video surveillance images showing the Portuguese manager purchasing cutting instruments and rat poison, which were later found in his possession. SERNIC states that this evidence supports the suicide hypothesis, although it insists on the need to fully clarify all remaining doubts.
Pedro Ferraz Reis, 56, was an administrator at BCI, a financial institution owned by Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) and Banco BPI, both Portuguese. His death caused great consternation among the Portuguese community living in Mozambique, with the Portuguese Embassy in Maputo publicly expressing its condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.
Meanwhile, an online petition with more than 5,000 signatures was sent to the Portuguese authorities, denouncing “inconsistencies” in the official version. The document challenges the alleged speed with which the case was changed from murder to suicide, considering it “unimaginable” that the victim left his workplace to fetch a knife from home, bought two more knives and poison, and then committed the act in a hotel in the capital.
The petition demands firm action by the Portuguese government, calling on the Assembly of the Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene to ensure a thorough investigation of the facts and to safeguard the memory and integrity of Pedro Ferraz Reis.
