Mozambique: Policemen handed maximum sentence for murder

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Mozambique: Policemen handed maximum sentence for murder

11:58 CAT | 23 Aug 2018

Photo: DW

The four Mozambique police officers convicted of killing four young people in Inhambane in 2017 were sentenced to the maximum prison sentence of 24 years on Wednesday and ordered to pay a total of 5.5 million meticais (about 385,000 Euros) in compensations to the families of the victims.

The ruling by Inhambane Judicial Court judge Carlos Fernando Pedro also dictated that “the two vehicles used by the defendants will revert to the Mozambican state”.

The defendants in the case are Joaquim Nascimento, then commander of the PRM in Maxixe district, Julião Ruben, chief of police operations and two agents of the criminal investigation services, Raul Luciano Samuel and José Jaime Marquez.

The crime occurred in 2017, with the four police being detained earlier this year.

In court, the defendants confessed that, after unjustifiably detaining them in the Maxixe police station, they had taken construction company workers Clemildo Xavier Cumbe, Horacio Ferrinho, Fernando Vilankulo and Octávio Armando, to a place in the forest 20 kilometres from the village of Mavume in Funhalouro disrict, and there shot them dead.

At the time, the defendants told their colleagues to say that the four detainees had been released, and that their whereabouts were unknown. But two weeks later, the bodies of the four victims were discovered, and investigations lead to the arrest of the four policemen.

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After reading the sentence, public prosecutor José Manuel told the press that he would request a review of the sentence by the Supreme Court. “As it is a long sentence, there has to be a re-examination by a higher court. We think the court did its job and we’re just doing ours,” he said.

The families of the victims professed themselves satisfied. Jaqueline Xavier, the mother of one of the murdered youths, said in an interview with DW Africa that justice has been done, although nothing could bring her son back. “I am the mother of Clemildo Xavier. Even if our compensation was 20 million, I’d still want my son alive,” she said.

This feeling was shared by Horácio Ferrinho’s wife: “Money is not going to bring his life back. I am a mother of three children. Horácio used to work as a bricklayer, but then started going to the family farm and helping my father.”

Elton Guimbissa, one of the defendants’ lawyers, told the press that he disagreed with the ruling. “We will appeal. We are not satisfied with the decision. The accusatory alibi was based on mere reflections, which justifies an appeal”.

Source: Deutsche Welle