The son of Mozambique’s former president has been jailed for 12 years over a vast $2.2bn (£1.8bn) fishing project scandal that triggered an economic crisis in the country.
The sentence which was made on Wednesday 7, 2022, would see Ndambi Guebuza, son of former president Armando Guebuza, among the 11 people found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering, a crime whose consequence would last in generations.
According to Judge Efigenio Baptista who said that Ndambi Guebuza has financed his taste for luxury through the crimes of embezzlement and money laundering.
Others given prison sentences include Gregorio Leao, head of the Security and Intelligence Service (SISE) under Mr Guebuza, and Antonio do Rosario, who became chairperson of all three newly-created state companies that took the loans.
Judge Baptista said they “were expected to be the guardians of public assets for being high ranking leaders responsible for security but instead, they are the key culprits”.
One notable absentee from the trial has been former finance minister Manuel Chang. He has been detained in South Africa since December 2018, in response to an arrest warrant issued by authorities in the United States, on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering.
He denies any wrongdoing.
President Guebuza left office in 2015 after a decade in power.
However, his Frelimo party remains in charge – as it has been since independence in 1975.
