Mozambique: Criminal complaint filed against police commander who assaulted woman during Presidential Inauguration – Watch

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Mozambique: Criminal complaint filed against police commander who assaulted woman during Presidential Inauguration – Watch

1:34 CAT | 17 Jan 2025

Screen grab: CDD Moçambique

The Centre for Democracy and Human Rights yesterday submitted a criminal complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office against a police commander who assaulted a woman during a demonstration by a group protesting the inauguration of the new Mozambican president.

“There are at least two crimes identified. The first is the crime of bodily harm and the other is physical coercion, with the intention of causing injury,” André Mulungo, editor of the bulletin of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights NGO told the media just after submitting the document to the Attorney General’s Office in Maputo.

The victim was attacked on Wednesday with a slap in the face by the commander of a group of officers from the Rapid Intervention Unit and, later, hit several times with a baton by another officer, in the presence of international television channels covering police operations to disperse demonstrators protesting about 300 metres from the site in the centre of Maputo of the inauguration of the new President of the Republic, Daniel Chapo.

“The intention was not only to insult, but also to send a message to all the people who were there, realizing that any movement could be responded to in the same way and in the same proportion,” added Mulungo.

The images of the attack, widely distributed on social media, generated a wave of solidarity, with people, including the victim herself, marching on the commander’s house in a Maputo neighbourhood to protest against the violence.

During the operation in the vicinity of Independence Square, the police used gunfire and tear gas to disperse a group of protesters who gathered in front of the Bank of Mozambique holding signs supporting presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane.

The police intervention was noticeable at the site of the inauguration and at the end of the ceremony, when gunfire to disperse protesters was heard in the city centre as the guests were leaving Independence Square.

Mozambican security forces had already dispersed another group of dozens of protesters shouting “Mondlane”, also around 300 metres from the site in the centre of the capital where the new president was sworn in.

Source: Lusa