OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Sunday 7.00PM.
FOREIGN affairs official Robert McBride who has been detained in Mozambique since March is expected to be released on Monday.
Mc Bride’s lawyer, Jose Nascimento, said McBride was die to be released on Friday, but the process was being held up by paperwork. He said the release would not be the end of the case, and that there might be conditions such as bail or “guarantees”.
McBride was arrested in the Mozambican town of Ressano Garcia in March and charged with gun-running. The charges were later changed to espionage. However it is generally believed that McBride was set up by apardheid-era securocrats. A report filed to President Nelson Mandela warning of a coup plot hatched by McBride and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was recognised as nonsense.
Nascimento said he had launched two applications: one to have the trial moved from the lower courts to the Supreme Court because “the [lower court] judge in the case had shown a flagrant disregard for McBride’s rights”; and an application to the Supreme Curt to have McBride released on bail. The breakthrough has=d come after six months of tough leagl negotiations, he said. McBride’s wife Paula said on Sunday: “Though I expect his release soon, it is not guaranteed. I can only hope that everything comes to a conclusion soon”.
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