Forty-eight people accused of being involved in a scheme to issue false visas from Mozambican consulates in South Africa, will stand trial by order of the Judicial Court of Maputo City.

The defendants have appealed the decision to schedule the trial to the Superior Court of Appeal, and are awaiting a decision, according to the newspaper Notícias, which cites a May 10 indictment.

The judge who sentenced the 48 defendants, Ivandra Uamusse, accepted the prosecution's accusation that the accused are guilty of conspiracy, embezzlement, abuse of office or position, forgery, and aiding illegal immigration.

The accused are also charged with the crimes of passive corruption for unlawful act or omission, active corruption and violation of professional secrecy.

The defendants include officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, the Ministry of Labor, the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), the National Migration Service (Senami), the Tax Authority, the Directorate of Civil Identification, Records and Notary and the Legal Entities Registry.

The scam was detected in the Mozambican consulates in the South African cities of Mbombela (Nelspruit), Johannesburg and Durban, after inspections by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and Senami.

Last week, five migration service employees were arrested, suspected of facilitating the entry of foreigners seeking to recruit members for the drug trade that finances terrorists, the Mozambican police announced.

The officials were arrested as a result of an arrest warrant issued by the Judicial Court of Sofala Province, as part of the diligence carried out after the arrest of five foreigners who sought to recruit members for the drug trafficking that finances terrorists, explained to the media in Beira, the spokesman for the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) in Sofala, Alfeu Sitoe.