The shipping group Privinvest has waived its right to call the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, as a witness in the trial of Mozambique's hidden debts case at the London Commercial Court.

The decision was announced by the company's lawyer during a hearing held this Thursday to discuss the reorganization of procedures as a result of the agreement reached between Mozambique and the UBS Group, owner of the Credit Suisse bank, over the weekend.

"We have concluded that we are not going to involve President Nyusi," said Duncan Matthews, quoted by Lusa, thus making it possible for the trial to begin on October 16 instead of asking for a postponement.

However, the company is still evaluating the possibility of challenging the diplomatic immunity granted to the head of state to exempt him from being questioned about the case.

Matthews lamented the "degree of uncertainty and lack of clarity" that still remains about the terms of the agreement between Mozambique and Credit Suisse, as well as the consequences of the process.

On Monday, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement that "the agreement guarantees that the parties will be free of any responsibilities and claims related to the transactions, including the extinction of the total amount of debt that Credit Suisse claimed from Mozambique".

Credit Suisse's lawyer, Laurence Rabinowitz, had already said that participation in the trial would be reduced as a result of this understanding, so Privinvest and the Russian bank VTB took on a more prominent role.

Privinvest is accused of corrupting Mozambican civil servants and Credit Suisse officials involved in negotiating contracts for the purchase of fishing boats and maritime safety equipment by the state-owned companies Proinducus, Ematus and MAM.

The Mozambican state wants to be compensated for damages, although the lawyer representing the Mozambican Attorney General's Office, Jonathan Adkin, said yesterday that the request for compensation for "macroeconomic losses" of more than one billion dollars had been abandoned.

For their part, the banks VTB and Banco Comercial Português are pursuing legal action to force Mozambique to pay back the loan of 535 million dollars granted to MAM.

The case, uncovered in 2016 and known as "hidden debts", involves contracts and loans of more than 2.7 billion dollars, according to the Mozambican Public Prosecutor's Office, with the banks Credit Suisse and VTB, between 2013 and 2014.

The trial is scheduled to last 12 weeks, until the end of December.