The company says it is continuing efforts to notify the President of the Republic, but the courts claim "difficulty" in finding space on his schedule.

The President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, is still not responding to the judicial notification made by Privinvest concerning the hidden debts process underway in British courts, revealed this Tuesday the lawyers of the shipping group.

"We are still trying to notify him," but the Mozambican courts claim "difficulty in finding space in the President's schedule," Prinvinvest's lawyer Duncan Matthews said Tuesday in London's Commercial Court at a preliminary hearing for the trial scheduled to begin in October 2023.

The documents notifying the head of state were delivered on October 19 last year at the Ponta Vermelha Presidential Palace and the President's Office, both in Maputo.

However, the lawyers of Privinvest and its owner, Iskandar Safa, have not yet been able to get the Mozambican courts to make official notification.

The deadline for making this notification was extended in May for another six months, until November 21, by Judge Robin Knowles.

According to Prinvinvest's lawyers, the Mozambican courts have concluded the notification of the remaining people as third parties in this process, namely the former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, the former President of the Republic Armando Emílio Guebuza and his eldest son, Armando Ndambi Guebuza, the former Director of Economic Intelligence of SISE António Carlos do Rosário and the former Director of the Information and State Security Services (SISE) Gregório Leão.

Filipe Nyusi was defense minister when the hidden debts were incurred, between 2013 and 2014, by the Mozambican state companies Proindicus, Ematum and MAM for tuna fishing and maritime protection projects.

The loans were secretly guaranteed by the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) government when Armando Guebuza was head of state, without the knowledge of parliament or the Administrative Court.

The Maputo City Judicial Court is trying 19 defendants accused by the Public Ministry of having associated in a "gang" and robbed the Mozambican State of 2.7 billion dollars raised with international banks through guarantees provided by the Government.

Nyusi's alleged involvement in the purchase of ships and maritime surveillance equipment has been the subject of several requests for information by Privinvest and the banks Credit Suisse and VTB to the Attorney General of Mozambique (PGR).

It was the Mozambican Attorney General's Office (PGR) that initiated a lawsuit in the Commercial Court in London in 2019 to write off the debts claiming they were the result of bribes to senior public officials, but has so far refused to respond on behalf of the President to the allegations of bribery and corruption.

In documents already filed in London, Privinvest confirmed that it had paid "substantial sums directly and indirectly for the benefit of President Nyusi," including $1 million in 2014 at the request of Antonio Carlos do Rosario for Nyusi's election campaign and $10 million to Frelimo, "to cover the costs of President Nyusi's election campaign and Frelimo's associated campaign for the National Assembly elections."

Mozambique's attorney general's office started this case in the British courts in 2019 to try to write off the $622 million debt owed by the state-owned company ProIndicus to Credit Suisse and seek compensation to cover all losses resulting from the hidden debt scandal.

At issue are hidden debts of the Mozambican state of about $2 billion incurred between 2013 and 2014 in the form of loans with the British subsidiaries of the investment banks Credit Suisse and VTB on behalf of the Mozambican state-owned companies Proindicus, Ematum and MAM.

The financing was intended for the purchase of tuna fishing boats and for equipment and maritime security services provided by Privinvest companies.