11 individuals, including two former intelligence chiefs, were given prison terms of up to 12 years by a Mozambique court for their part in a corruption scandal that secretly increased the debt of the African nation by $2.2 billion.
Judge Efigenio Baptista delivered the verdicts for the two former Mozambican intelligence officials involved in the scandal on Wednesday at Maputo City Court.
Antonio Carlos do Rosario and Gregorio Leao, two intelligence agents, received a 12-year prison term. Gregorio’s wife, Angela Leao, received a 12-year prison term.
Both Rosário and Leao were found responsible for theft, money laundering, and other offenses.
Son of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, Ndambi Guebuza, was also given a 12-year prison term. The previous president’s son accepted payments to persuade his father to authorize a coastal protection project, which was used to obtain funds for the undisclosed debts, according to the court, which found this to be evidence.
The judge ruled that those found guilty must pay back the $2.2 billion. The court ruled that an appeal must be filed within 20 days.
The verdict, according to jurist Paulino Cossa, demonstrates that no one in Mozambique is above the law.
In fact, he remarked in Portuguese, “this proves that whatever it may be, there are no untouchables in our country.”
Of the 19 people indicted in connection with the scandal, the judge stated that he could not find “sufficient evidence” to convict eight of them. But over the course of the three-month trial, President Filipe Nyusi was mentioned in a number of witness statements.
When Nyusi served as defense minister in 2014, the debt problem was uncovered. Three state-owned businesses in Mozambique borrowed $2 billion in secret from foreign banks to pay for the acquisition of military patrol boats and fishing boats.
The loans were made without parliamentary sanction and behind the creditors’ backs of a nation that is among the 10 poorest in the world and dependent on foreign help, which led to the scandal’s discovery in 2016.
Cooperation partners withdrew help to Mozambique, notably the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which caused the nation to experience an unprecedented financial crisis and go into debt.
Some of the money has not yet been located. A third-party audit found that $500 million vanished.
