Judge Efigénio Baptista has refused the London Commercial Court's request to hand over official documents to the parties involved in the UK Hidden Debts case.

The lawyers for the banks Credit Suisse, VTB and the shipping group Privinvest requested the intervention of Mozambique's Deputy Attorney General, Ângelo Matusse. He submitted a request to Judge Efigénio Baptista to "consult, copy and disclose" the "official process.

Using the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique, the judge considered that a possible transfer of the official documents to the plaintiffs could cause collateral effects to the trial proceedings taking place in Maputo.

"It would be a violation of the Constitution to allow documents obtained for criminal proceedings to be used for collateral purposes," said Jonathan Adkin, the lawyer representing the Republic of Mozambique in the proceedings in London, quoting Judge Efigénio Baptista.

Relying further on the Constitution of the Republic, the judge sought to safeguard the defendants' integrity, arguing that they "have the right to moral integrity over their good name, reputation, defensive rights of public image, private life, and the inviolability of their correspondence.

For their part, Credit Suisse, VTB and Privinvest argue that access to ongoing documents in Mozambique is important to build their arguments, describing the "official process" as a "treasure trove" of information.

Judge Robin Knowles, who presided over Monday's hearing is expected to give a written decision on whether or not he would ask the Attorney General's Office to hand over to British justice the documents it has in its possession.

The trial in the Commercial Court, part of the High Court of London ('High Court'), is scheduled to begin in October 2023 and last at least three months, but the different parties will argue procedural issues until then.

Initiated by the PGR on behalf of the Republic of Mozambique in 2019, the lawsuit seeks to try to write off the $622 million debt owed by the state-owned company ProIndicus to the Credit Suisse bank and obtain compensation to cover all losses resulting from the hidden debt scandal.

At issue are hidden debts of the Mozambican state of about two billion dollars 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.

Source: msn