Mozambique | Ndlavela: Women’s Observatory files criminal complaint against director, staff and persons unknown

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Mozambique | Ndlavela: Women’s Observatory files criminal complaint against director, staff and persons unknown

8:08 CAT | 23 Jun 2021

Photo. Facebook

The Women’s Observatory [Observatório da Mulher] has submitted a criminal complaint against the management of the Special Penitentiary for Women [‘Ndlavela’] to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), vowing to pursue the matter en masse if they don’t receive a satisfactory answer soon.

Civil society organizations subscribing to the Women’s Observatory collective this Monday (21 June) went to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) to submit a criminal complaint against the management of the Ndlavela Women’s Prison.

They expect to have a response to their complaint within 15 days.

The Women’s Observatory, created to address the sex scandal in Ndlavela prison, say that the accusations presented on June 15 by the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) signal that the matter is a criminal one.

“With this, we today launched a criminal complaint against the director of the Special Penitentiary for Women in Maputo, against all state agents and officials affected and involved in this action, SERNAP [the National Penitentiary Service] and other players hitherto unknown who may be involved in this actions,” Women’s Observatory leader Quitéria Guiringane explained.

The organisation demands the creation of an independent investigation commission, including Women’s Observatory personnel, to monitor all the necessary steps.

Guiringane does not trust the commission created by the Ministry of Justice, explaining that “it is not just a lack of confidence in the established commission”, but that “we believe that [only] the Public Prosecutor’s Office has the competence to lead a commission of inquiry into this situation”.

“We would prefer it to be an independent inquiry commission, and one of the actions that we intend to advance is to send another petition to the President of the Republic regarding this matter,” the social activist adds.

Exemplary sentences

In addition to announcing an investigation into the case, the Ministry of Justice has decided to suspend the management of the Ndlavela prison while the scandal is being investigated.

But the Women’s Observatory does not want this case to end in the mere suspension or expulsion of the offending agents, since it is, as they understand, a criminal matter.

“We say in our complaint that we have identified more than nine criminal offenses, including those of threats, physical aggression, pimping, human trafficking, sexual harassment, criminal association and a series of aggravating circumstances including premeditation, association of more than one person [to commit a crime], and infractions by persons with the duty to protect, among other circumstances, justifying maximum penalties,” Guirengane says.

Last week, Maputo Provincial Court judge Joana Quinze told DW Africa that those responsible should be held criminally accountable.

“First we have to investigate, to find out if there really are perpetrators, and if there are, they have to be held criminally accountable, and exemplary sentences applied so that these situations do not arise again,” she emphasised.

Commission to investigate the case

Meanwhile, the commission of inquiry responsible for investigating the alleged sexual exploitation network in the Maputo jail said on Monday that it was “deeply concerned” with the case, pledging to “bring the whole truth to the surface”.

“Like all the citizens who are following this case, the commission members are also deeply concerned with bringing to the surface the whole truth,” commission chairman Sinai Nhatitima said.

Nhatitima was addressing journalists in Maputo moments after the group’s first meeting. The chairman of the commission, which has a deadline of 15 working days to present results, also said that the group was “open” to listening to all parties, respecting basic principles such as the presumption of innocence.

“We have to be pragmatic. In the process, new elements and dynamics may emerge which require us to work beyond 15 days,” Nhatitima added.

In addition to investigating, the commission is mandated to propose solutions and alternative ways to “humanise” the penitentiary system, and make recommendations on measures to be taken with regard to the organisation and functioning of penitentiary services.

Source: Deutsche Welle