Three more individuals convicted in the hidden debts scandal, the largest corruption case in Mozambique, were released on Thursday, June 19. According to Lusa, the following individuals were granted parole:
- Gregório Leão, former Director-General of the State Information and Security Service (SISE)
- António Carlos do Rosário, former Director of Economic Intelligence at SISE
- Bruno Langa, friend and business associate of Ndambi Guebuza, son of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza
“Their pretrial detention was terminated under the parole regime,” said Isálcio Mahanjane, lawyer for António Carlos do Rosário and Bruno Langa. He added that “the three had been serving 12-year prison sentences, after being arrested and placed in preventive custody in 2019.”
On Tuesday, June 17, Ângela Leão, wife of the former SISE Director-General, and Ndambi Guebuza were also released. They had been sentenced on December 7, 2022, to 11 and 12 years in prison, respectively. Earlier, in May, two other convicts — Cipriano Mutota, a former director of SISE’s Research Office, and Fabião Mabunda, a civil engineer and owner of a company that allegedly received bribes from Privinvest — were also granted parole.
During the trial, Judge Efigénio Baptista sentenced six of the 19 defendants to 12 years in prison. Among other crimes, the court found that the defendants had accepted bribes to facilitate meetings with then-President Armando Guebuza and to influence the approval of the coastal protection project, which was used to raise funds for the hidden debts, involving the shipbuilding company Privinvest.
The hidden debts scandal dates back to 2013–2014, when then-Finance Minister Manuel Chang — now detained in the United States — approved state guarantees for loans taken out by ProIndicus, Ematum, and MAM from Credit Suisse and VTB, without informing Parliament.
Discovered in 2016, the debts were estimated at around $2.7 billion, according to figures from the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The trial followed nearly four years of litigation in British courts, where Mozambique accused parties of corruption, conspiracy to defraud through unlawful means, and dishonest assistance, in a bid to cancel the debts and claim financial compensation worth millions of dollars.
Source: Diário Económico (DE)
