Mozambique:Ex-President Guebuza to testify at “hidden debts” trial in December.

By Jorge Joaquim

The former Mozambican president, Armando Guebuza, will appear in court as a witness in the corruption trial on the $2.2bn “hidden debts” on 2 December.

In a new list, which was released on Friday, 64 witnesses were named, including the former fisheries minister, Victor Borges; finance minister Adriano Maleiane; and the former governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Ernesto Gove.

The hidden debts trial started on 23 August. It is expected that the defendants’ testimony will be completed on 1 October. The hearings of the witnesses are expected to run from 5 October until 2 December.

The corruption scandal, revealed in 2016, led donors including the IMF to withdraw funding, provoking the economy to collapse.

Mozambique former Finance Minister, Manuel Chang, is also among the accused. Chang is currently in detention in South Africa.

The hearing is being held in a makeshift court on the premises of the high security prison of Machava, where Ndambi Guebuza, the son of former President Armando Guebuza, has been held in pre-trial custody since February 2019.