London, April 22, 2025 (Lusa) - Privinvest has been authorised by the British justice system to appeal against the ruling in the ‘hidden debts’ case, which condemned the shipbuilding group to compensate the state of Mozambique to the tune of around €1.65 billion.
The authorisation was confirmed last week by the British Court of Appeal, but the date of the hearing has not yet been scheduled.
In its decision of 16 April, the Court of Appeal considered that there was "a real prospect of success" in the grounds presented.
"As Privinvest said at the time of the judgement last year, the ability of the English judge [Robin Knowles] to conduct a fair trial was deliberately sabotaged by Mozambique's ‘hidden documents’ litigation strategy,’ said a Privinvest representative, speaking to the Lusa news agency on Tuesday.
In its request for an appeal, filed in December 2024, Privinvest invoked Mozambique's failure to fulfil its obligation to disclose documents related to the case, and regrets that the judgement did not reflect these shortcomings.
Privinvest also complained that the same failings by the Mozambican attorney general prevented it from proving that the alleged bribes to former minister of finance Manuel Chang were merely "joint investments in a sovereign investment fund or bank".
The company argued during the trial, which took place in 2023, that the case should be dismissed because the Mozambican attorney general's office failed to produce several official documents demanded by the defence, including several relating to the then Mozambican president, Filipe Nyusi.
In the judgement issued in July last year at the Commercial Court in London, Knowles ordered the shipping group to pay around US$1.9 billion (€1.65 billion at the current exchange rate) in damages and rejected Privinvest's appeal.
The judge found it proven that Privinvest paid bribes, notably to Manuel Chang to sign state guarantees on bank loans taken out by state-owned companies Proindicus, Ematum and MAM in 2013 and 2014 to buy ships and maritime surveillance equipment in 2013.
Uncovered in 2016, the debts were estimated at around US$2.7 billion (around €2.35 billion), according to figures presented by the Mozambican public prosecutor's office.
The case that became known as ‘hidden debts’ plunged Mozambique into a financial crisis.
BM/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
