Mozambique: New attorney general is ‘hope’ in time of challenges – president

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Mozambique: New attorney general is ‘hope’ in time of challenges – president

8:01 CAT | 10 Dec 2024

Photo: Procuradoria Geral da República Moçambique

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday described the swearing in of the new attorney general, Julião Letela, as “hope and renewal” in a period of “challenges” in the country, which require “unity, determination and courage”.

“This ceremony, which takes place at a peculiar moment in our beloved country, symbolises hope and renewal in a time of challenges, which demand from all of us, as a nation, unity, determination and courage to face them,” said the head of state, at the swearing-in ceremony of Américo Julião Letela, at the Presidency of the Republic, in Maputo.

“The justice administration system, as the last line of defence for citizens‘ rights, freedoms and guarantees, assumes an even more crucial role at a time when our country is facing challenges that test our commitment as a democratic state governed by the rule of law,” he added, asking Américo Julião Letela to “act as an agent of qualified change”.

In his speech, he pointed out that the public prosecutor’s office (‘MP’) is currently facing the challenges of “strengthening the capacity” of the central offices for combating organised and transnational crime or “combating corruption and recovering assets”, which are “decisive” entities for combating “organised crime”.

“We also hope that in your actions you will bear in mind that it is necessary to be more assertive in the prosecution of crimes that threaten the security of the state,” asked Nyusi, addressing the new attorney general, emphasising that the “central axes” of the prosecutor’s office must be speed in the processing of cases and “control of legality”.

Américo Julião Letela has been a public prosecutor for over 20 years and replaces Beatriz Buchili in the post, with the head of state recognising the outgoing prosecutor’s “patriotism and true sense of mission” during her ten years in office.

The head of state, who is coming to the end of his mandate after ten years in office, emphasised that during this period he has done “everything for the continued credibility” of the justice institutions.

“Today we can say that despite the scarcity of resources, we have achieved tangible results in the judiciary and the public prosecutor’s office,” he pointed out, recalling that from 2014 to 2023 the number of employees in the public prosecutor’s office, including magistrates, grew by 44.6%, to the current 2,953, and since 2019 alone four new headquarters and two provincial anti-corruption offices have been built.

“Our desire is to see the public prosecutor’s office increasingly robust, closer to the citizen and more active in the exercise of its functions. To this end, it is necessary to permanently train and increase human, technical and technological resources to meet today’s challenges,” he concluded.

Speaking to journalists at the end of the ceremony, Américo Julião Letela highlighted the challenges ahead of him as “strengthening the control of legality”, with more quality in the magistrates’ work, particularly in procedural investigation.

“The public prosecutor also needs to pay attention to assessing the degree of fulfilment of due diligence and also taking into account what the deadlines for cases should be,” he said.

He also stressed the need to strengthen the “capacity to intervene in criminal cases”, in the face of steps that are taken “after the deadline or in a deficient manner”, which “doesn’t help much in producing evidence”, also pointing to international legal cooperation as a priority, as well as “qualified” infrastructure, magistrates and justice officials.

For new attorney general, money laundering “is a major challenge” that requires “bolder measures” to stop the “export of capital”, recalling that a previous assessment by the public prosecutor’s office pointed to more than US$800 million illegally taken out of the country.

“The amount that has been exported illegally is rising sharply,” he recognised.