Murdered border police officers: Almost one year on, the case is still in ‘preparatory investigation’ and with no defendants

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Murdered border police officers: Almost one year on, the case is still in ‘preparatory investigation’ and with no defendants

3:20 CAT | 28 May 2020

Almost a year after the murder of two Republic of Mozambique Border Guard police officers, the case seems stalled. Case 217/PO/2019, opened in the wake of the barbaric murder, continues in the investigation stage [instrução preparatória], and without any defendants named.

This information appears in the annual report of Attorney General Beatriz Buchili, presented last week to the Assembly of the Republic (AR), assessment if which has divided opinions in parliament and in public.

It will be recalled the two PRM agents, Benício Guirruta and Faustino Monteiro, were shot dead by South African military personnel at the Ponta d’Ouro border crossing, Zitundo administrative post, Matutuine district, Maputo province, on June 16, 2019.

The agents, who were on duty at the border post at the time, were allegedly killed during an armed confrontation with soldiers from the neighbouring country, with the PGR report stating that the two crimes of voluntary homicide [manslaughter] occurred at around 3:00 p.m. on that day.

ALSO READ: South African soldiers kill two Mozambican police – AIM report

The barbarity and brutality of the crime shocked all of Mozambican society, which has since the very first moment demanded accountability, starting with the soldiers who, in cold blood, executed Benício Guirruta and Faustino Monteiro.

On June 19, PRM Commander-General Bernardino Rafael, speaking at the funeral of one of the agents, said: “the South African military used bullets to silence our colleagues” when they were caught on Mozambican territory 50 metres from the border.

South African National Defence Force spokesman Mafi Mgobozi, quoted at the time by the News 24 portal, described the incident as occurring during a routine border protection patrol, and in ‘no-man’s-land’ between the two countries.

By Ilódio Bata

Source: Carta de Moçambique