The widow of the late businessman Iskandar Safa, former owner of the Privinvest shipping group, has asked the Court of Appeal of England and Wales to overturn the decision that allowed Mozambique to include her in the lawsuit related to the hidden debt scandal.
According to Law360, Clara Martinez Thedy de Safa argues that any liability arising from the estate left by her husband should be decided by Lebanese courts and not by the English courts. The appeal was heard on Thursday (30) in London, according to information released by the British judicial system.
The widow is challenging a decision made by the High Court in London on June 16, 2025, which authorized Mozambique to include her, along with Akram and Alejandro Safa, in the case. The court also permitted the amendment of the pleadings and the service of process on heirs outside British jurisdiction.
Attorney Robert Howe, who represents Clara Safa, argued that his client is not a British citizen, does not reside in the United Kingdom, and has no substantial connection to that jurisdiction. The defense further clarified that there is no indication that the widow was aware of or participated in the acts attributed to her husband. Her challenge centers on which court should decide on any liability passed down through inheritance.
Mozambique, for its part, maintains that the English courts should conclude the proceedings, since they have been handling the dispute for several years, have reviewed the evidence, and have issued the main ruling on Privinvest’s conduct. The government also argues that forcing the country to initiate new proceedings in Lebanon could lead to the same issues being litigated in two jurisdictions and increase the risk of conflicting rulings.
In the June 2025 ruling, Judge Robin Knowles held that, under the Lebanese law presented to the court, the rights, assets, debts, and obligations of a deceased person pass to their heirs. Each heir’s liability, however, is limited to their share and the value of the assets actually inherited, and there is also the option to renounce the inheritance.
Iskandar Safa died on January 29, 2024, after the trial concluded but before the judgment was issued on July 29 of that same year. For this reason, the court did not issue a formal ruling on the businessman’s personal liability. The judge merely indicated what the outcome of the charges against Safa would have been had he not died, leaving the legal consequences of his death and the possible involvement of family members in the proceedings for a later stage.
In the main case, the London Commercial Court concluded that payments made to the then-Minister of Finance, Manuel Chang, were intended to induce him to sign the state guarantees related to the loans from ProIndicus, Empresa Moçambicana de Atum, and Mozambique Asset Management. The judge also found that Safa was behind the promises and payments made to Chang.
The ruling established that Mozambique was entitled to just over $825 million from the Privinvest group companies, in addition to compensation related to future liabilities estimated at $1.5 billion. These amounts are subject to deductions for sums already recovered by the state.
The financing for the hidden debts, totaling more than $2 billion, was secured between 2013 and 2014 by the three state-owned companies, with state guarantees issued without the approval of the Assembly of the Republic. The disclosure of the loans in 2016 led to the suspension of financial support from international partners, exacerbating the economic and financial crisis the country was facing.
