Musings From Abroad

Mozambique prevails in UK legal battle against Privinvest ‘tuna bond’ controversy

Published

4 months ago

July 29, 2024

In its $3.1 billion case against the Emirati-Lebanese shipbuilder, Privinvest, for allegedly paying bribes in connection with the ten-year “tuna bond” affair, Mozambique has mostly prevailed at London’s High Court.

The southeast African nation filed a lawsuit against Privinvest and its now-deceased owner, Iskandar Safa, claiming that they bought favours with Mozambican officials and Credit Suisse bankers to get favourable conditions on three projects in 2013 and 2014, one of which was to make use of the country’s coastline waters rich in tuna.

Judge Robin Knowles rendered a decision on Monday that was “substantially in favour” of Mozambique. According to Knowles, the country has been taken advantage of by sophisticated institutions and enterprises who ought to have known better.

The judge stated in his written decision that Mozambique is entitled to reimbursement from Safa and the Privinvest group of firms for little more than $825 million.

In addition, the judge awarded Mozambique an indemnity of almost $1.5 billion that it owes bondholders and lenders, minus the approximately $420 million that the nation has already collected.

The trial focused on agreements made between state-owned businesses and Privinvest for bonds and loans from banks, including Credit Suisse, for projects related to maritime security and fishing boats, which were supported by unidentified governmental guarantees.

However, hundreds of millions of dollars vanished, and when the government’s debt was revealed in 2016, donors like the International Monetary Fund momentarily stopped providing support, which led to a crash in currency values, defaults, and financial instability.

“The scale and nature of what was able to happen in this case presented a systemic threat to Mozambique’s economy,” Knowles said in his ruling, although he was also critical of the country’s officials.

Mozambique filed a lawsuit against three of the former employees of Credit Suisse, which has since been acquired by UBS (UBSG.S), opens new tab. Privinvest, Safa, and other employees of the Swiss firm had entered guilty pleas in the US.

Credit Suisse was able to put an end to the crisis that had already cost the bank hundreds of millions of dollars when it reached an agreement with Privinvest during the trial and then reached an 11th-hour settlement with Mozambique in October.

Musings From Abroad

Finnish court imprisons Nigeria’s Simon Ekpa for aiding terrorism

Published

5 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian separatist leader based abroad, has been placed under detention by the Päijät Häme District Court in Finland on suspicion of inciting others to commit acts of terrorism.

According to the local daily, Helsingin Sanomat, the court rendered the ruling on Thursday following his arraignment by the Central Criminal Police for his involvement in the terror attacks that have afflicted the southeast area of Nigeria.

“The police suspect that the man has promoted his efforts from Finland with means that have led to violence against civilians in the region of South-Eastern Nigeria,” stated Otto Hiltunen, the crime commissioner and investigation head.

“The man has carried out his activity, among other things, on his social media channels.”

Hiltunen also informed the court that the police suspected four additional individuals in Finland of funding Ekpa’s activities.

According to the story, Ekpa is of Nigerian descent and was born in the Finnish city of Lahti.

His offence occurred between August 23, 2021, and November 18, 2024, according to court documents cited in the publication.

Ekpa is not the only person the police have arrested. In February 2023, they caught him at a private Lahtian flat, but he was freed the same day.

Through the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Ekpa has continued to be outspoken on social media, raising money and agitating for a Biafran nation to secede. In the southeast part of Nigeria, both factions have been involved in acts of violence, murders, and maimings.

Since gaining formal independence in 1960, Nigeria has seen the emergence of several separatist organisations. The latest surge of calls for self-determination among different ethnic groups has been louder under its immediate previous President Muhammadu Buhari.

Musings From Abroad

Malian singer Rokia Traore arrested in Italy, to be sent to Belgium

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

After Italy’s top court denied her appeal, well-known Malian singer, Rokia Traore, who was detained in Rome in June due to a global child custody dispute, will be sent over to Belgium in the next few days, her attorney announced on Wednesday.

The 50-year-old Traore is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and one of Africa’s most well-known vocalists.

“Rokia suffered an injustice. She was arrested without the Belgian criminal court hearing her voice. Now, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels,” lawyer Maddalena Del Re said in a statement to Reuters.

The attorney also stated that in its decision late Tuesday, Italy’s Court of Cassation upheld an extradition decision from the European Court of Justice.

Under a European arrest order, Traore was taken into custody on June 20 at the Fiumicino airport in Rome. In October 2023, she was given a two-year prison sentence in Belgium related to a dispute over her daughter’s custody.

She had flown to perform outside Rome’s Colosseum, and she has been imprisoned in Civitavecchia, close to the Italian city, since her detention at Fiumicino.

Lawyer Del Re said that because a conviction was rendered without the defendant’s presence, the Belgian process goes against both international norms and Italian constitutional standards.

After she disregarded a court order to turn over her baby to her Belgian father, the singer’s divorced ex-partner, she was initially taken into custody in France in 2020 on a Belgian arrest warrant.

She disobeyed orders not to leave France until her extradition case was handled by taking a private jet to Mali months after being conditionally released. Mali is where her daughter resides.