/ 25 March 2008

Mozambique seeks extradition of ‘child-sex trafficker’

Mozambique criminal investigation police (PIC) have arrived in South Africa to negotiate the extradition of a woman alleged to be a child sex-slave trafficker, news reports said on Tuesday.

The woman, who is currently in a South African jail, is accused of enticing Mozambican girls across the border to Pretoria where they are used as sex slaves.

The woman is apparently wanted for questioning in Mozambique for entrapment, kidnapping and the falsification of documents.

AIM said the case came to light after two 16-year-old Mozambican girls were rescued from a brothel in Moreleta Park, Pretoria, by a Mozambican man living in South Africa.

The agency said lawyer Inacio Mussanhane found out that the girls were being kept as sex slaves and visited the brothel under the guise of being a client.

Rejecting a bribe of R2-million allegedly offered by the woman for his silence, he rescued the girls and reported the matter to the police. The woman was subsequently arrested.

The girls were interviewed on Mozambican television which drew the attention of the PIC.

The woman is believed to be Mozambican, but was allegedly found to have four passports, two from Mozambique and two from South Africa.

The team — headed by PIC national director Carlos Come — includes assistant attorney general Andre Paulo Cumbe, and Lurdes Mabunda, head of the domestic violence department in the general command of the Mozambican police. – Sapa