OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 4.00pm
SUSPENDED foreign affairs official Robert McBride, who was detained in Maputo for six months on charges of espoinage and gunrunning said on Saturday that the Mozambican Supreme Court has dropped all charges against him.
McBride said his lawyers have informed him from Mozambique that an appeal against taking the matter to trial has succeeded. “I haven’t seen the judgement yet but my lawyers have just told me of the latest development,” he said.
McBride, who was arrested at a border post between Mozambique and South Africa in March last year — allegedly as he was about to accept a consignment of Makarov pistols and AK 47 rifles — said he is not surprised at the court’s decision.
“What happened is what I expected. I had absolute faith in the Mozambican courts and knew they would free me of all charges,” he said.
McBride has consistently claimed that he was working for the South African intelligence services, investigating arms-trafficking, when he was arrested. Upon returning to South Africa in September after six months in preventative custody, he claimed to have found proof linking gun-running from Mozambique to a spate of robberies in South Africa.
The National Intelligence Agency denied however that he was authorised to undertake fieldwork on their behalf. McBride, a former anti-apartheid guerrilla who spent years on death row for bombing Magoo’s bar in Durban in which three people died, also claimed that he was framed by security officials who previously worked under the apartheid regime.
After his arrest he was suspended from his post as head of the Asian desk in the department for foreign affairs pending the outcome of the legal proceedings.
The foreign ministry Saturday declined to comment until it had received official notification from Mozambique that the charges had been dropped. — AFP