Maputo — The Sofala Provincial Court, in the central Mozambican city of Beira, on Thursday morning sentenced three men to 30 years imprisonment for the murder, on 28 December 2017, of Portuguese businesswoman, Ines Bota, according to a report on the independent television station, STV.
The three. Jacob Maite, Danilo Lampião and Isaías Nicolau had confessed to the crime, but only Maite and Lampiao were in court to hear the verdict and sentence. Nicolau had escaped from prison and his current whereabouts are unknown. He was tried in absentia.
The gang said they had abducted Bota and forced her give them her bank card and its PIN number, so that they could withdraw money from an ATM. They then decided to kill her because she could recognize one of them, Nicolau, who was her personal trainer.
So the gang drove out of Beira towards the Pungoe river, With her hands and feet bound, the killers threw Bota into the river where she drowned. The fire brigade recovered her body two days later.
In addition to the custodial sentence, the murderers must pay Bota’s family damages of 1.5 million meticais (about 26,300 US dollars at current exchange rates).