Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican police said on Tuesday that Portuguese national José Pedro Alves da Silva, shot dead on Friday in Maputo, was killed by his security guard and driver when they tried to steal the money he was carrying in his car.
“These two individuals have confessed to committing this crime, which was a shooting, and which was the determining factor in this Portuguese citizen’s death,” said the spokesman for the general command of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), Leonel Muchina.
José Pedro Alves da Silva was the son of former Sporting de Braga president Alberto Silva, who in 2019 was appointed the club’s ambassador for southern Africa.
He died after being shot in the chest inside his car at around 1 p.m. local time in the city of Matola, on the outskirts of the Mozambican capital.
The victim died while being transported to José Macamo Hospital in Maputo.
At a press conference in Maputo, the Mozambican police said that the driver and the security guard shot him to steal the money he was carrying in the car and denied reports that he had been killed in an attempted kidnapping.
The police said that the driver and the Portuguese citizen’s security guard had previously made statements to the effect that the shot had been fired from outside the car and that it had been blocked by the alleged kidnappers using two other vehicles.
“No shards of glass were found inside the car, which contradicts the version that the alleged attackers smashed the window of the car the victim was travelling in. (…) The driver confessed that the shot was fired by the security guard inside the car, and there was no chase or shooter from outside,” said Leonel Muchina.
Hundreds of people gathered on Monday at the Church of Santo António da Polana in Maputo for a mass in honour of José Pedro Alves da Silva.
Alves was a director of SOTUBOS, a well-known company selling pipes and building materials, owned by his father, who is in Portugal.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolences to José Pedro Alves da Silva’s family.
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