Maputo — The Mozambican authorities on Wednesday presented to the media a member of the notorious Abdul Satar crime family as one of the masterminds behind the wave of kidnappings of business people that has affected Mozambican cities since 2011.
The person presented is a 66 year old woman, who was not named, but was introduced as the former mother-in-law of Momad Asside Abdul Satar (better known as Nini Satar) who was one of those sentenced to lengthy prison terms for ordering the assassination of the country's foremost investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso, in November 2000.
The Maputo city spokesperson for the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic), Hilario Lole, told a press conference that the detention resulted from an extensive police operation intended to dismantle the network responsible for the kidnappings.
"Kidnapping is an organized and transnational crime', said Lole, "which involves those who order the abductions, those who carry them out, and other individuals who monitor the victims'.
Satar's former mother-in-law, together with her son, who is currently a fugitive somewhere in Portugal, is accused of ordering several kidnappings.
"The son of the woman lives in Portugal', said Lole. "The driver was responsible for handling the money demanded from the victims of kidnappings as ransom. The woman was responsible for the financial management of the kidnap gang, receiving cheques signed by her son and distributing money to other members of the network, including for acquiring vehicles and paying rent on premises where the victims would be held prisoner.
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Lole said Sernic had access to information through bank transfers via cheque and using mobile wallets, undertaken by a man whose whereabouts are currently unknown (but is presumably the detained woman's son).
"Measures are being taken to locate him so that he can be neutralized', said Lole.
He added that the police have recovered electronic devices containing information crucial for the investigation, and a vehicle, parked at the fugitive's residence, that was used in a kidnapping in April.
Thanks to the police operation, two victims who had been abducted on 24 April and 5 August, were released from captivity.
Speaking to the media, the suspect denied all the accusations. She claimed she had just signed cheques without knowing what the money would be used for. Since 2022 she had received money from her son for duly licensed building work.
"I just signed the cheques, I didn't fill them out', she said. The last cheques she signed were for 220,000 meticais (about 3,440 US dollars) and for 150,000 meticais, drawn on two different banks, which she passed on to her 62 year old driver, who has also been detained.
"The cheque books are with me', she said. "They belong to my son and nobody else'.
"They were never very large sums. They were between 100,000 and 300,000 meticais, which came from the rents of some shops', she said
The driver (whose name has also not been revealed) said that since 2016, he has worked for one employer in Portugal and one in Maputo. He said he drew out money from banks with the fugitive (whom he named as Faraz) to make payments of about 370,000 payments to a certain Faruque.
"I made three or four payments, but I didn't know the people I was paying or what the money was for', he said.
