25 March 2008
Maputo — A team from the Mozambican Criminal Investigation Police (PIC) and the Attorney General's Office have arrived in South Africa to negotiate the extradition of a woman named only as Diana, who is accused of enticing Mozambican girls across the border to Pretoria where they are then used as sex slaves
The team, headed by Carlos Come, the PIC national director, also includes assistant attorney general Andre Paulo Cumbe, and Lurdes Mabunda, head of the domestic violence department in the General Command of the Mozambican police.
It is suspected that Diana is part of a powerful organized crime network that traffics young girls who end up as prisoners in South African brothels.
Police sources, cited in Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", fear that the extradition of Diana cannot be expected soon because most of the crimes of which she is accused, including private imprisonment and torture, were committed in South Africa.
But the Mozambican authorities also have cases against her, including entrapment, kidnapping and the falsification of documents. So after serving any prison term in South Africa, if convicted, she could be repatriated to Mozambique, to stand trial for these crimes.
The case came to light thanks to the rescue of two 16 year old Mozambican girls who were being held at a brothel in the Pretoria suburb of Moreleta Park. A Mozambican lawyer working in South Africa, Inacio Mussanhane, found out that young girls were being kept as sex slaves in this mansion.
Pretending to be a client he went there, and managed to free the two Mozambicans. Rejecting a bribe of two million rands (about 247,000 US dollars) offered by Diana to keep his mouth shut, Mussanhane went to the police, and Diana is now in a South African jail.
Back in Mozambique the two girls gave their story to Mozambican Television, thus alerting society to the reality of the trafficking in children.
Diana's full name is now yet known. She is believed to be Mozambican - but was found to have four passports, two from Mozambique and two from South Africa.
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