Mozambique: Former candidate Mondlane accuses attorney general’s office of bias

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Mozambique: Former candidate Mondlane accuses attorney general’s office of bias

8:01 CAT | 11 Mar 2025

File photo: Facebook Live screengrab

Venâncio Mondlane, the second-placed candidate in last October’s presidential elections in Mozambique, according to the official results, on Monday accused the attorney general’s office of bias, as it was quick to act against him but not in relation to the accusations that he said he has made in recent months.

“My expectations are not that high,” said the former presidential candidate, speaking to journalists at Maputo airport on his return from a few days in Botswana, when asked about a summons for him to give evidence at the attorney general’s office on Tuesday, revealing that he is aware that he is the subject of eight lawsuits.

“I don’t know which one I’ll answer tomorrow,” he said. “But I’m ready.”

He claimed that the cases had been opened to “intimidate, terrorise and frighten” him.

Mondlane recalled the various lawsuits and complaints that he himself has submitted to the attorney general’s office in recent months, including one relating to an alleged attempt on his life during the campaign for the general elections on 9 October, in which he stood for president.

“No outcome so far,” he pointed out of this case, referring also to a complaint he filed about 398 cases of “extreme violence” against members of his “political organisation” – including “forty deaths” – that has also seen no developments. On these grounds, he accused the institution of “partiality” against him.

“I’m not worred: I don’t even need to do much preparation,” he said of the summons, while adding of his own lawsuits: “There are so many cases.”.

The hearing of Mondlane scheduled for Tuesday – which, according to a source in the attorney general’s office, is part of a “criminal case filed last year” – at the Public Prosecution Service in Maputo had been scheduled for Monday morning, but at his request it was postponed until Tuesday at 9 a.m.

This is one of at least two publicly known cases against Mondlane at the attorney general’s office, relating to the demonstrations that the politician has called since October against the official election results.

The former candidate had not made any public statement since last Wednesday, when Mozambican police fired to disperse a crowd following a caravan led by the politician, precipitating his escape from the scene.

During his absence from Mozambique, Mondlane claims to have held business meetings, namely with a former president of Botswana, Ian Khama.

“There was no reason to flee” the country, he said of his absence. “I am available for anything to defend this people.”

On 22 November, the Public Prosecution Service demanded compensation of €1.5 million for the damage caused by the demonstrations in Maputo province, in a fresh case against Mondlane and against Podemos, the party that supported him in the elections and until February this year, when it broke with him.

This is the second civil lawsuit of its kind to be known, after another that the Public Prosecution Service filed with the Maputo City Judicial Court, for damages caused in the capital during the protests, seeking compensation of 32,377,276.46 meticais (€486,000).

On 27 January, the attorney general’s office announced that it was opening proceedings against Mondlane on the grounds that a document that he styled a “presidential decree” subverted the principles of the democratic state.

At issue was a document signed and circulated by Mondlane in January, entitled “decree” and published in the self-styled ‘Jornal do Povo’ (People’s Newspaper), which contained 30 proposed measures for his first 100 days in office, one of which stated that “it is up to the people, the victims, to establish themselves as an autonomous court that issues sentences to stop the macabre wave of the UIR, GOE and Sernic” – references to units of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique that he accused of “incessant flurry of summary executions” in the preceding weeks.

“The publication of the alleged decree, by the same citizen, constitutes a flagrant violation.. of the Constitution of the Republic, since this act constitutes a prerogative reserved for the competent organs of the State and is published in the Official Gazette,” the prosecutor’s office added in a statement.

Mondlane, who was named by the Constitutional Council as the candidate with the second largest number of votes in the 9 October presidential elections, is leading the biggest challenge to official election results that Mozambique has seen since the first multiparty elections in the country in 1994.

The official results handed victory to Daniel Chapo, the candidate backed by the governing Frelimo party. He has already been sworn in as Mozambique’s fifth president.

Since the demonstrations began in October, at least 353 people have died as a result of clashes between police and demonstrators during the protests, according to the Plataforma Eleitoral Decide, a non-governmental organisation that monitors electoral processes. The government has confirmed the deaths of 80 people.

Source: Lusa