More than 10% of the 8.4 billion meticais (131.5 million US dollars) in assets seized in the country between 2019 and 2024 have been recovered in favor of the State, announced the Central Office for Asset Recovery (GCRA) this Monday, June 16, as reported by Lusa.
During an international seminar on asset recovery and fair compensation for victims, organized by the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), a non-governmental organization, data presented by this body of the Public Prosecutor’s Office showed that since 2019, assets originating from organized crime and valued at just over 899 million meticais (14.1 million US dollars) have been transferred to the State.
GCRA statistics also indicate that in the same period, at least 532 vehicles, 194 properties, and 7,348 miscellaneous items were seized, in a total of 153 processed cases, of which 71 have been concluded. “Our challenge is to expand the Central Office for Asset Recovery to the provinces. Provincial offices are already planned, but they are not yet in place. For now, we are operating with focal points,” said Jorge Chivinge, a magistrate assigned to the GCRA and a speaker at the seminar.
The Supreme Court admitted this Monday, June 16, that imprisonment as the only strategy to combat organized crime “is ineffective,” advocating for collective action and the full recovery of assets obtained through illicit means to serve as deterrents. “Prison alone has proven ineffective in eradicating organized crime as long as it retains its ill-gotten gains. It is essential to deprive organized crime of the economic resources accumulated through illegal activities, which are used for its own reinforcement. These resources are reinvested in crime, perpetuating and sustaining illicit actions,” said Luís Mabote, appellate judge at the Maputo Court of Appeals.
On April 29, Lusa reported that in 2024 alone, the GCRA had seized assets valued at around 4.4 billion meticais (69 million US dollars), compared to 1.3 billion meticais (20.4 million US dollars) the previous year.
According to figures released at the time by Attorney General Américo Letela, the seized assets included 34 properties valued at just over 4.2 billion meticais (66.3 million US dollars) and 183 vehicles valued at just over 134 million meticais (2.1 million US dollars).
“We emphasize the need for the approval of a civil forfeiture law, as an additional tool to combat organized and transnational crime, by stripping criminals of the proceeds of their illicit activities,” urged Américo Letela while presenting the institution’s annual activity report.
In June 2024, the Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that in the last ten years alone, the country had recovered nearly three billion meticais (47.1 million US dollars) across 11,000 cases related to the fight against corruption, terrorism financing, and money laundering.
Source: Diário Económico
