MAPUTO, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The Mozambican government will take further action to fight against crime and corruption as the country has confiscated assets worth more than 1 billion meticais (about 16 million U.S. dollars) over the past year, a senior official said Monday.
The seized assets were acquired by the suspects through criminal means, said Helena Kida, minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs of the southern African country.
It is urgent to create mechanisms and introduce laws to confiscate illicit assets, she said at a meeting held Monday in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, where judiciary authorities and experts discussed strategies for fighting against corruption.
Even though the criminals were penalized, their assets remained in their hands, Kida said. The minister said that the identification and recovery of these assets, before the sentence of the criminals, continues to be one of the challenges for the organs of justice.
The criminals often commit crimes without having the assets in their name, and the law has to allow the authorities to pick up these assets, Kida said, adding that the seized assets will be placed under the management of various sectors of the country pending the decision of the court. ■