Privinvest suggests Mozambique's President accepted notification for "Hidden Debts" case to attend King's Coronation in London

"One of the positive effects of the coronation [of the King of England] was the fact that, just before the coronation, a slot suddenly appeared in the President's [Nyusi] schedule, who accepted to be notified, and then went to London for the coronation," said Privinvest's lawyer, Duncan Matthews. 

The lawyer spoke on the first day of hearings at the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in London, regarding the head of state's immunity in the Mozambique debts case, which was judged and is awaiting a verdict from the Commercial Court. 

Privinvest claims it notified Nyusi on October 19, 2021, but the President only responded on May 5, 2023, the eve of the British monarch's coronation ceremony. 

Regarding this, Nyusi's lawyer argued that the 2021 notification was invalid because the documents were left at the gatehouse of the Ponta Vermelha Palace, the official residence, and did not go through a Mozambican court, which only happened on April 14, 2023. 

Matthews, however, reiterated that "there is no proof that he did not receive the notification of the documents," adding that "it would be very strange if he had not done so, because he is the President of the Republic who has been following this case for the last three months." 

Rodney Dixon, Nyusi's lawyer, again emphasized that international law grants immunity as long as a head of state is in office. "This is a status of absolute personal immunity, with no exceptions, that subsists as long as he is in office."

The decision on this appeal will be known later, on a yet-to-be-determined date. The London Commercial Court has also not yet issued a verdict on the three-month trial that concluded last December on the Mozambique "hidden debts" case.