{"id":14102,"date":"2022-02-15T16:32:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T16:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/?p=14102"},"modified":"2022-02-15T14:50:00","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T14:50:00","slug":"hidden-debts-trial-only-one-more-witness-left-to-testify-aim-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/hidden-debts-trial-only-one-more-witness-left-to-testify-aim-report","title":{"rendered":"Hidden debts trial: Only one more witness left to testify \u2013 AIM report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>There is just one more witness left to testify. He is former President Armando Guebuza, and the court has scheduled his testimony for Thursday morning \u2013 though it is entirely possible that it will take more than one day for the judge, the prosecution and the defence to question Guebuza.<\/p>\n

After Guebuza\u2019s testimony, the court will hear the closing statements from Marrengula and from the lawyers for all 19 defendants.<\/p>\n

Privinvest paid for Rosario\u2019s properties<\/b><\/p>\n

The owner and director of the building company Walid Constru\u00e7\u00f5es, Mohamed Fakih, on Monday told the Maputo City Court that it was the Abu Dhabi based group Privinvest that paid for work done on properties owned by Antonio Carlos do Rosario, former director of economic intelligence in the Mozambican security service, SISE, in 2013-2014.<\/p>\n

Rosario is one of 19 people on trial for financial crimes in connection with the scandal of Mozambique\u2019s \u201chidden debts\u201d. The prosecution suspects that the sudden wealth of Rosario, and several other suspects, resulted from bribes paid by Privinvest.<\/p>\n

Privinvest was the sole contractor for three fraudulent, security-linked companies, Proindicus. Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management). Rosario became chairperson of the board of all three companies.<\/p>\n

The companies obtained loans of over two billion dollars from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia, on the basis of illegal loan guarantees issued by the government of the time under the then President Armando Guebuza.<\/p>\n

All the money was sent to Privinvest, which then supplied the companies with vastly overpriced fishing boats, patrol vessels and other assets. The overpricing allowed Privinvest to spend at least 200 million dollars on bribes.<\/p>\n

For the only time in this trial a witness gave evidence by video link. Fakih holds Algerian, Mozambican and Portuguese nationalities, and he is currently living in Algiers. Thanks to cooperation from the Algerian judicial authorities, a video link was established between Algerian and Mozambican courtrooms.<\/p>\n

It was Rosario who wanted Fakih as a witness, but his testimony cannot have done Rosario any good.<\/p>\n

He said Rosario had been a client of Walid Constru\u00e7\u00f5es since 2009. Between 2012 and 2015 Walid worked on three building projects for Rosario \u2013 a large house in the upmarket neighbourhood of Belo Horizonte on the outskirts of Maputo, and hotels in Belo Horizonte and the western city of Tete.<\/p>\n

Fakih said Walid was paid slightly more than three million dollars for this work. But that money did not come from Rosario \u2013 instead it was paid, in two instalments, into his account by Logistics International, which is part of the Privinvest group.<\/p>\n

On Rosario\u2019s instructions, all correspondence about payments was sent to senior Privinvest official, Jean Boustani \u2013 although Fakih had never met Boustani, and never had any contract with Logistics International.<\/p>\n

Another company effectively run by Rosario, and with close ties to Privinvest, Txopela Investments paid over 15 million meticais (about 234,000 dollars, at the current exchange rate) to Walid, and this money was spent on Rosario\u2019s Belo Horizonte house.<\/p>\n

This was not Walid\u2019s initiative. Fakih said \u201cI didn\u2019t contact Txopela. I only found out about the Txopela payments through emails\u201d.<\/p>\n

The money was not enough. Fakih told the court he did not make a cent on his dealings with Rosario \u2013 quite the contrary. He said Rosario still owes Walid 300,000 dollars for its work on the three building projects.<\/p>\n

He confirmed the authenticity of a series of emails exchanged with Rosario\u2019s representatives about the work on the three building jobs. Last year, when he testified, Rosario claimed that these emails had been forged.<\/p>\n

Asked by prosecutor Sheila Marrengula what he made of this claim, Fakih replied \u201cthe contents of the documents can be verified. I don\u2019t know why he (Rosario) says they may have been forged. I find this repugnant. I wasn\u2019t taught to forge anything, and I have no interest in falsifying documents\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he is a believer, as he says he is (Rosario claims to be a Muslim), then he should restore the truth\u201d, said Fakih.<\/p>\n

At one point Rosario also said he never hired the services of Walid Constru\u00e7\u00f5es. \u201cHow can I go into somebody else\u2019s property and build there without his consent?\u201d, retorted Fakih. \u201cHe should clean up the image of my company. His statements are false\u2019.<\/p>\n

Fakir denied leaving Mozambique because of the \u201chidden debts\u201d. He had gone to Algeria for \u201cpersonal reasons\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

There is just one more witness left to testify. He is former President Armando Guebuza, and the court has scheduled his testimony for Thursday morning \u2013 though it is entirely possible that it will take more than one day for the judge, the prosecution and the defence to question Guebuza.<\/p>\n

After Guebuza\u2019s testimony, the court will hear the closing statements from Marrengula and from the lawyers for all 19 defendants.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mozambique<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. There is just one more witness left to testify. He is former President Armando Guebuza, and the court has scheduled his testimony for Thursday morning \u2013 though it is entirely possible that it will take more than one day for the judge, the prosecution and the defence to question Guebuza. After Guebuza\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":14100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-14102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nHidden debts trial: Only one more witness left to testify \u2013 AIM report - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is just one more witness left to testify. 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