Maputo — The Mozambican Attorney-General's Office is investigating several magistrates and other law officers of the Maputo City Court, following the disappearance of 600 million meticais (about 25,200 US dollars) paid to the court as bail over six years ago, according to a report in Friday's issue of the independent newsheet "Mediafax".

The bail was paid by relatives of Samssudine Satar, the only man ever tried in connection with the 40 tonnes of the drug hashish, seized by the police in May 1995. Satar had been driving the truck laden with the containers full of hashish - he claimed he did not know the true nature of the cargo.

The case came to trial in December 1996, and the City Court sentenced him to seven years imprisonment for drug trafficking.

An appeal was immediately lodged and he was released on bail.

When the appeal was heard, the sentence was cut to three years and two months. "Mediafax" interviewed Satar who said he had been granted conditional freedom in December 2002 after serving half his sentence.

Even before this conditional release, his lawyer, Albano Silva, had been demanding the return of the bail money, without success. Several dispatches have been issued, but there is still no sign of the money, which ought to have been deposited in a court account with the Austral Bank.

Satar said he sought an interview with the judge who tried his case in 1996, Isabel Rupia, who is now one of the Assistant Attorney-Generals. "She told me this money had been fraudulently withdrawn", Satar said. "The court must now order the Austral Bank to replace it. Rupia said criminal proceedings have been initiated against some magistrates and court officials".

Contacted by "Mediafax", a source in the Attorney-General's office said "The money's disappeared".

"We know the money has been withdrawn from the court's account", he said. "We'll find out who did it".

When the paper contacted the Austral Bank, it was told that the person dealing with press inquiries was out of the country on holiday.