AYOOB DENIED BAIL

A Maputo judge has denied bail to a Mozambican businessman, Momed Khalid Ayoob, who was caught trying to smuggle 18 million rands (about 2.6 million US dollars) in banknotes from Mozambique to Dubai via Swaziland.Ayoob was arrested in Swaziland in 1 December when police at Matsapha International Airport discovered the money. A week later a Swazi court released him on bail of 400,000 rands – but kept the 18 million, until he can prove that he came by it legitimately.Ayoob tried to slip back into Mozambique late in the evening of 13 December at the Goba frontier post. But customs officers and members of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC) were waiting for him, and he was immediately driven to a Maputo jail.According to PIC sources cited in the latest issue of the weekly paper “Magazine Independente” (MI), Ayoob was brought before an investigating magistrate on Thursday. Ayoob’s lawyers requested his release on bail, but the judge refused.The judge feared that Ayoob might try to leave the country if he was released, and determined that he should remain under detention while PIC under took further investigations. Furthermore, the judge noted that Ayoob contradicted himself as to the origin of the money. He had told the court in Swaziland that the money came from clients of his businesses in Maputo. But he told the Maputo judge that he had acquired the money in Swaziland.Even in the unlikely event that Ayoob can prove that he came by the money legitimately, he can still be prosecuted under Mozambican exchange legislation, since the maximum amount that any traveler can take out of the country without declaring it is 5,000 US dollars, or the equivalent in other currencies.