Nineteen defendants including a former president’s son linked to a massive debt scandal that plunged Mozambique into its worst financial crisis are to go on trial next month, according to a court document seen Wednesday. The scandal saw the government secretly take out loans totalling around $2.0 billion in 2013 and 2014 from global investors to finance a tuna-fishing fleet and a maritime surveillance project.
The United States has alleged that at least $200 million of the total was spent on bribes to politicians and top officials. When it emerged that the government had borrowed the money secretly, without declaring to parliament and multi-lateral lenders, Mozambique, which relies on foreign aid and is one of the world’s poorest countries, found itself cut off by donors.
Several lawsuits related to corruption cases have been lodged in the US, Switzerland, Britain, South Africa and in Mozambique. The Mozambique leg of the trial is scheduled to start on August 23 and will be held at the Machava maximum security prison in the capital Maputo, judge Efigenio Batista said in the document dated July 12. Seven of the 19 defendants, including Ndambi Guebuza, son of former president Armando Guebuza, and a former spy chief have been in custody since February 2019.
Former finance minister Manuel Chang has been held in South Africa since December 2019 at the request of US authorities for allegedly receiving $7.0 million in kickbacks related to the scandal.
