On the eve of conspiracy trial: Police seize electronic equipment from former Renamo deputies

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On the eve of conspiracy trial: Police seize electronic equipment from former Renamo deputies

4:46 CAT | 14 Jul 2020

FILE PHOTO : Former Renamo Secretary General Manuel Bissopo. [File photo: Voa Portugues]

On Thursday of last week (July 9), a team from the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) searched the homes of former Renamo deputies, Manuel Bissopo and Sandura Ambrósio, in Sofala province and seized various pieces of electronic equipment. This was the day before the start of the trial of Sandura Ambrósio on charges of conspiring against the state, and suspicion of financing the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta.

Manuel Bissopo confirmed the seizure of cell phones and computers to VOA.

Mozambican analysts Sansão Nhancale and Martinho Marcos consider that the seizure of electronic equipment in the homes of former deputies on the eve of the trial may have been the result of errors in forensic evidence collection in the building of the case, which will be reflected in the sentence.

Sansão Nhancale says the electronic equipment “may be able to clear or prove their involvement in the conspiracy against the state”.

Political scientist and university professor, Martinho Marcos, who thinks that the search and seizure operation was not random, says that the police action “may also be politically motivated, investigating the new connections of the former deputies, after losing leadership positions within Renamo”.

Sandura Ambrósio is the only former Renamo deputy arrested among all the former and current parliamentarians listed as suspects of having a connection with or financing the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta led by Mariano Nhongo, who served former Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama as a military strategist.

On Friday, 10, the Dondo District Judicial Court began the trial of six defendants held in pre-trial detention since January – allegedly four recruits, a recruiter and a financier.

On the first day, the judge heard only two defendants, with new hearings scheduled for Wednesday, 15, and Friday, 17, in the same court.

Defence lawyer José Capassura, said that he drew attention to errors of expertise in the process and expected an abstention on the part of the public ministry, which however chose to move forward with the indictment.

“There is a great contradiction regarding the ruling of indictment and the prosecution’s indictment, as well as the expert report attached to the process,” he maintains.

The case started in January with the arrest of alleged recruits going to join the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta in Sofala and Zambézia.

In the same month, in addition to the arrest of Sandura Ambrósio, former secretary-general Manuel Bissopo was questioned at the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in Sofala, while Afonso Dhlakama’s younger brother, Elias Dhlakama, Renamo deputies António Muchang, and José Manteigas and the former head of the party’s bench in the Assembly of the Republic, Ivone Soares, were questioned at the Attorney General’s Office in Maputo.

Source: Voa Portugues