Maputo — A judge in the Beira City court on Monday Wednesday ordered the release of Dudass Taipo, the son of Mozambique’s former Labour Minister, Helena Taipo, according to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”.
Agents of the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) came from Beira to Maputo to serve an arrest warrant on Taipo, and took him back to Beira with them on Saturday.
According to Taipo’s lawyer, Ivan Pontavida, he was arrested at the request of a Beira businessman, Ismail Ismail of the Uzeir Group who accused him of “abuse of trust”. Criminal proceedings were begun in Beira and Taipo, being in Maputo, did not answer a summons to attend an interrogation. Hence the arrest warrant.
The Beira judge questioned Taipo on Wednesday, and could find no crime in what had happened, which was just a business dispute between Ismail and Taipo. It was a civil matter, not a criminal one.
Pontavida declined to give any details of the dispute between his client and Ismail.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique