APA-Maputo (Mozambique) Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi is seeking immunity from prosecution in a London trial related to the country’s “hidden debt” scandal, according to reports monitored here on Friday.
According to Mozambique-focused online news site Zitamar News, lawyers for the Mozambican government want Nyusi removed from the case in which Abu Dhabi-based shipbuilder Privinvest is countersuing the Maputo authorities for cancelling a contract.
The lawyers are arguing that Nyusi has immunity as a sitting head of state and could not be sued.
Mozambique is suing Privinvest, its billionaire chief executive Iskandar Safa and international investment bank Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) in London’s high court over US$2 billion in government-guaranteed loans raised in 2013 and 2014, a hefty chunk of which allegedly went missing.
Privinvest, the sole contractor to a series of projects the money was ostensibly raised for, has separately launched arbitration proceedings against three state-owned companies in Mozambique and Nyusi, claiming compensation for breach of contract.
The scandal involves the government taking on loans to pay for maritime projects, without informing parliament or international donors.
The money was instead used to fund security operations, leading the International Monetary Fund to suspend aid to Mozambique after the revelations.
Privinvest says its claims against Nyusi “relate to payments made for his benefit, including to fund his 2014 presidential-election campaign, and given that he was at the heart of the creation and the subsequent sabotaging of the projects in Mozambique.”
JN/APA