Mozambique: Prosecutor wants 30 year sentence for policeman accused of inciting a coup d’état

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Mozambique: Prosecutor wants 30 year sentence for policeman accused of inciting a coup d’état

3:55 CAT | 12 Sep 2023

Image: Marcelo Mosse/Facebook

The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Inhambane province has asked in court for a prison sentence for a member of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) accused of the crimes of inciting collective disobedience and a coup d’état.

The defendant, a member of the Rapid Intervention Unit (anti-riot force), is accused of having spread messages, through WhatsApp, inciting other members of the police to rebel against salary delays in the corporation, and threatening to “remove the commander in chief (Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi) from Ponta Vermelha (the official residence of the head of state), as well as “stopping the country”.

“So that others, who use social networks, do not spread messages promoting coups d’état, we ask that the sentence of 30 years in prison be applied,” said Maurílio de Sousa, the Public Prosecutor’s Office lawyer at the defendant’s trial in the Judicial Court of Inhambane, southern Mozambique.

In addition to the maximum penalty, the Mozambican Public Prosecutor requested compensation of 500,000 meticais (€7,281 euros) for the state, arguing that the authorities had to “take precautions” in the face of the threat of the aforementioned demonstration.

During the trial, the defendant denied authorship of the message, indicating that he had forwarded it to the general commander of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), Bernardino Rafael, with the intention of warning him.

“I only received the message and, as a member of the PRM who swore to defend national sovereignty, as soon as I saw it I forwarded it to the commander-general. I am not the author of the message,” the defendant declared.

The application of the new Single Salary Table (TSU) left several sectors of the Mozambican Public Administration with salary arrears, with members of the Defence and Security Forces complaining of delays of at least two months in paying salaries.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, delays in paying salaries to the Defence and Security Forces are due to registration problems in the new payment system, taking into account the migration to the single system that began in June, whereas previously payments were made via the ministries of Interior and of Defence.

On August 11, President Filipe Nyusi demanded an urgent solution to the delays and discrepancies caused by the application of the TSU, warning that the timely payment of salaries was “sacred” and that he would not tolerate “excuses”.

In the case of the Defence and Security Forces, and a few days after the general commander of the Police, Bernardino Rafael, acknowledged the two months of outstanding salaries for members of the corporation, Filipe Nyusi ordered that payment be made again by the previous platforms, until the problems are overcome, as the commander himself had requested.

This Tuesday morning, the Mozambican Police Association (Amopaip) again complained about irregularities in the payment of salaries to the corporation’s officers, a month after the head of state demanded an urgent solution, asking the competent authorities for an explanation.

“Salaries continue to go out in a way that we cannot understand. Some receive it and others don’t. Those who receive it continue to have a discount that no one can justify and no one comes forward to explain,” president of Amopaip Nazário Muanambane told a press conference in Maputo.

The TSU was approved in 2022 in order to eliminate asymmetries and keep the state’s wage bill under control in the medium term, but implementation caused salaries to skyrocket by around 36%, from 11.6 billion meticais/month (€169 million) to 15.8 billion meticais/month (€231 million).

Sentencing in the trial of the PRM member will be announced on September 27th.

Source: Lusa