'Hidden debts' returns to the spotlight

A new court judgement jeopardises Mozambique's case

Good afternoon. Mozambique’s ‘hidden debts’ case has been in UK courts again over the last fortnight — still at the level of relatively arcane legal arguments in preparation for the actual trial, due to take place in October this year, but with some revealing elements nonetheless.

The UK Supreme Court this week heard an appeal in the question of whether certain parts of the case should be heard in the UK at all. Privinvest, the Lebanese shipbuilding group which received $2bn from Mozambique for the offshore security tech, says no; Mozambique says yes. The whole two-day hearing can be watched online; a ruling will come later.

But Mozambique’s ability to bring a case in London at all could be in question due to the republic’s inability or unwillingness to supply information that the court requires.

In a ruling published at the end of last week, a British judge disagreed with Mozambique’s Attorney General on a question of Mozambican law — namely whether Mozambique’s UK lawyers can get a ‘need to know’ designation to have access to relevant, classified documents in Mozambique.

The judge said that they should be able to, and asked Attorney General Beatriz Buchili to reconsider her position — despite her having made clear that she would not. Somewhat embarrassingly for her, the judge noted that she had previously held a different — and in the judge’s view the correct — view in the past.

Mozambique’s lawyers, however, are concerned that even if Buchili’s office does designate them as able to see these documents, they could be laying themselves open to future prosecution in Mozambique if they disclose the contents of the documents — as they would have to do — in a UK court. The judge reserved judgement on that question until the first one is resolved.

But even the Attorney General’s office itself does not have access to some of the documents required by the UK court. In a witness statement in April last year, deputy Attorney General Ângelo Matusse said that “SISE, the Office of the President and the Council of State will not formally designate me or my team to carry out searches, collections and reviews of documents held by them."

But that then raises the question of how justice will ever be done, in Mozambique — given the centrality of SISE to the deals, and possibly that of the office of the President too. Individuals from both those entities have been tried and convicted for their involvement. It will be interesting to see if a UK judge manages to prise this secrecy open — if the alternative is that Mozambique has to give up on its claims against Privinest, Credit Suisse, and others.

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Agenda:

• Today-Tomorrow: US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield visits Mozambique

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Today’s front pages in Maputo. Photo © Faizal Chauque / Zitamar News