An employee of the Beira Municipal Council, assigned to the works inspection sector, was arrested in flagrante delicto by the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) on charges of corruption.

According to the PRM, in Sofala, the accused was arrested in flagrante delicto when he tried to extort 120,000 meticais from a Chinese national as a way of cancelling a fine of 550,000 meticais for lack of legal documentation for building infrastructure in the municipality.

The head of the Public Relations department at the PRM Provincial Command in Sofala, Roberto Selemane, said that the arrest of the accused was thanks to the collaboration of the owner of the construction site, who noticed some irregularities in the collection process and immediately contacted the police, who went to the place where the amount was to be paid.

"The payment was illegal, because these payments must be made in the municipality. The official coerced the person responsible for the work into paying that amount, as a way of annulling the fine for the infraction. There are therefore grounds for holding the official in question responsible," said Roberto Selemane, quoted by the News.

However, despite being caught red-handed, the accused refutes all the charges against him, with allegations of an alleged "trap" to incriminate him, set by people in bad faith who want to harm him.

"I don't know under what circumstances I'm being held. I didn't have any money in my hand, the money they're talking about I only saw on the police table, and then it was returned to the Chinese. It's a plot to harm me," he refuted.