An ex-transport minister and three former airport officials have appeared on trial for corruption on Monday in Mozambique.

Antonio Munguambe, Mozambique's transport and communications minister from 2005 to 2008, is charged as an accomplice in the embezzlement of $1.7-million from national airport company Airports of Mozambique, according to the official news agency AIM.

The airport company's former chief executive, its ex-finance director, Munguambe's former chief of staff and the head of an airport catering company are co-defendants in the case.

The airport officials stand accused of using public funds to pay for luxury houses, cars and gifts to family members. Munguambe and his former chief of staff face lesser charges of helping to cover up the alleged embezzlement.

Baltazar Sael, spokesperson for the Mozambican Public Integrity Center, said the case is a first for Mozambique, a country that ranks in the bottom third of watchdog Transparency International's corruption index but rarely sees high-level officials go on trial.

"This is the first case that has been publicised in the press that involves major state figures, and for that reason it ends up serving as an example," Sael said.

"Before, people thought the justice system's fight against corruption only ended up capturing what we call 'little fish.'" Sael said Munguambe is the first former minister ever to go on trial in Mozambique.

Former interior minister Almerino Manhenje was arrested in September 2008 on corruption charges, but has been released from prison while the supreme court decides whether to indict him.

Munguambe was arrested in October 2008, but has been released from prison pending the outcome of his trial.