Mozambican president sued in UK over 'secret loans'

By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA) - Mozambique's president has been summoned to appear in a London court over multiple secret loans taken out and not repaid by the southern Africa country, an international shipbuilding company involved in the matter announced Thursday.

The UAE-based firm Privinvest told local media that Filipe Nyusi had been served the court summons on Oct. 19 over claims concerning "payments made to him, including to finance his 2014 presidential election campaign."

In its announcement, it also accused Nyusi of being "central to the creation and subsequent sabotage of projects in Mozambique," the Carta de Mozambique news website reported.

Nyusi is being prosecuted for allegedly receiving several payments for investments in projects by Privinvest's local partners while in office as minister of defense.

Proceedings against Nyusi at a British High Court started on May 20 this year, with Ndambi Guebuza, the son of former President Armando Guebuza, also one of the 19 defendants in the case.

Guebuza has been in prison for two years and is now on trial in Mozambique for allegedly accepting a bribe of $33 million. Last month, he reportedly said Nyusi was "the right person to talk to" on a project implicated in the affair concerning secret international loans totaling over $2 billion taken out between 2013 and 2014 by Mozambican state firms -- much of which was later found to be unaccounted for.