{"id":32704,"date":"2023-01-21T17:38:47","date_gmt":"2023-01-21T17:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents"},"modified":"2023-01-21T17:45:16","modified_gmt":"2023-01-21T17:45:16","slug":"british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents","title":{"rendered":"British lawyers to be denied access to hidden debts classified documents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>The Mozambican Attorney General\u2019s Office will oppose the participation of British lawyers in the selection of confidential official documents to be included in the hidden debts lawsuit in the United Kingdom, despite a British judge considering it legal.<\/p>\n

At a preliminary hearing today at the commercial court in London, the lawyer representing Mozambique in the case, Jonathan Adkin, reiterated that the understanding of the Attorney General\u2019s Office (PGR) is that the law does not allow the intervention of outside persons in the manipulation of confidential documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMozambique\u2019s attorney general [Beatriz Buchili] will consider the judge\u2019s decision carefully and reflect,\u201d Adkin said, but stressed that she is \u201cdetermined to resist\u201d any order from the British courts to that effect as she believes it goes against Mozambican law.<\/p>\n

Adkin was responding to Judge Robin Knowles\u2019 ruling published on Friday, in which he stated that \u201cit is legal under Mozambican law to appoint individual lawyers\u201d to consult confidential documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respectfully invite the attorney general of Mozambique, as the representative of the Republic before this court, to carefully study this sentence,\u201d he continued, encouraging her to make \u201cfurther reflection\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite having been in London in recent days to discuss the case with the British legal team representing the attorney general, Buchili was not present in the room, unlike the deputy attorney general, A\u0302ngelo Matusse, who attended the hearing.<\/p>\n

The participation of British lawyers in the analysis and selection of official documents that will be shared with the other parties was requested by the banks Credit Suisse and VTB and by the shipping group Privinvest as a matter of independence.<\/p>\n

In its argument, Credit Suisse claimed that it would be \u201cprejudicial to elementary justice, and would deprive the disclosure exercise of any integrity\u201d if the selection of official documents made available by Mozambique is only made by public officials \u201cwhose heads are implicated in irregularities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a concern that this court should take seriously into account,\u201d the judge acknowledged.<\/p>\n

The disclosure of documentary evidence is an obligatory step in British proceedings, when the different parties make available to each other documents relevant to the case so that each can prepare their respective arguments.<\/p>\n

The deadlines for its completion have been subject to successive postponements, which risk affecting the start on 3 October of the trial of a case that has been dragging on in the British courts for almost four years.<\/p>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s Office (PGR) began legal action in 2019 on behalf of the Republic of Mozambique in the commercial court, which is part of the High Court in London, against Credit Suisse and the Prinvinvest group to try to cancel part of the more than US$2.7 billion (2.6 billion euros) of debt contracted with international banks between 2013 and 2014.<\/p>\n

The loans were guaranteed by the government, led at the time by president Armando Guebuza, without the knowledge of parliament or the administrative tribunal, which led to the denomination of \u201chidden debts\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Russian bank VTB has also launched a lawsuit in the same court to recover instalments that Mozambique failed to pay for one of the loans made by public companies to buy tuna fishing boats and maritime security equipment and services.<\/p>\n

Several senior public officials and state figures, such as Guebuza, former finance minister Manuel Chang and current head of state Filipe Nyusi are named in the suit.<\/p>\n

In a court case that was concluded in December in Maputo, 11 of the 19 defendants in this case were sentenced to prison (10 to 12 years). tTree of them will have to pay compensation to the state equivalent to \u20ac2.6 billion: Ndambi Guebuza, son of former president Armando Guebuza, and two former heads of the secret services, Grego\u0301rio Lea\u0303o and Anto\u0301nio Carlos do Rosa\u0301rio (former director general and former head of economic intelligence, respectively), who each received a sentence of 12 years in prison.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican Attorney General\u2019s Office will oppose the participation of British lawyers in the selection of confidential official documents to be included in the hidden debts lawsuit in the United Kingdom, despite a British judge considering it legal. At a preliminary hearing today at the commercial court in London, the lawyer representing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":32703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-32704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nBritish lawyers to be denied access to hidden debts classified documents - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Mozambican Attorney General\u2019s Office will oppose the participation of British lawyers in the selection of confidenti ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"British lawyers to be denied access to hidden debts classified documents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Mozambican Attorney General\u2019s Office will oppose the participation of British lawyers in the selection of confidenti ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mozambique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-21T17:38:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-21T17:45:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1674310140.63.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"584\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"British lawyers to be denied access to hidden debts classified documents\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-21T17:38:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-21T17:45:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents\"},\"wordCount\":667,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1674310140.63.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Mozambique\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/british-lawyers-to-be-denied-access-to-hidden-debts-classified-documents\",\"name\":\"British lawyers to be denied access to hidden debts classified documents - 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