Privinvest, the Lebanese company at the center of the hidden debt scandal, is playing all its cards to avoid being tried by the English courts. Defendant in the civil proceeding initiated by the Attorney General of the Republic of Mozambique (PGR) at the High Court of Justice in London, the company owned by the French-Lebanese millionaire Iskandar Safa, defends itself by rejecting the competence of the English courts to hear the case. Privinvest claims that the parties agreed that disputes resulting from the Supply Agreements signed with the three Mozambican companies – EMATUM, ProIndicus and MAM – would be settled by the Swiss International Court of Arbitration (ICC, in its English acronym). In the first instance, the London court dismissed the allegations presented by Privinvest through a decision of Judge Justice Waksman. Dissatisfied, Privinvest appealed to the Court of Appeal in London and the case was judged on the 17th and 18th of February last.
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