The Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) believes that Hidden Debts harmed the Mozambican State with a high "intensity", for which it requested the Judicial Court of Maputo City to apply the maximum penalty for eight of the 19 defendants in the main case under trial.

According to the MP, the maximum penalty should fall to Armando Ndambi Guebuza, Armando Guebuza's eldest son, who was President of the Republic at the time of the hidden debts; to Gregório Leão, former Director-General of the Information and State Security Services (SISE) and his wife, Ângela Leão; for António Carlos do Rosário, former Director of Economic Intelligence at SISE; Cipriano Mutota, former Director of the Office of Studies and Projects at SISE; and for Renamo Matusse and Emilia Moiane, former advisor and personal secretary to Armando Guebuza, respectively.

The defendants targeted by the prosecution who deserve the maximum penalty, including those who are expected to receive sentences close to the maximum penalty, are charged with association to commit crime, embezzlement, money laundering, forgery of documents, abuse of office or position, and influence peddling.

The Public Ministry asked for the same penal framework for Fabião Mabunda, a contractor for Gregório and Ângela Leão.

As on Wednesday, Marrengula again particularly targeted Ndambi Guebuza, pointing out that he used the money he seized from hidden debts in a "futile and clumsy" way by buying luxury cars for himself and friends, mansions, and chartering planes for summer vacations.

For 10 of the 19 defendants, the prosecution asked for "a sentence close to the maximum limit.

The only defendant for whom Sheila Marrengula has requested an acquittal is Simione Mahumana, a former courier at a money exchange office that the prosecution believes was used to drain some of the money that Gregório Leão and his wife appropriated.

The prosecution has also asked that the defendants be ordered to pay damages of $2.7 billion, corresponding to the total hidden debts, plus interest of $850.5 billion calculated until 2019.

Sheila Marrengula again used harsh words to describe the defendants' conduct, calling it "disgusting and disgusting.

The state employees implicated, he continued, "were required to be guardians of the public good and not frontline evildoers.