Mozambique: 1,215 arrested over the past week

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Mozambique: 1,215 arrested over the past week

12:07 CAT | 22 Feb 2018

O País

Mozambique police arrested 1,215 people for various alleged offences last week, 995 of them for crossing border illegally. The PRM spokesman said an alleged 116 crimes had been committed, 96 of which had already been cleared up by the police.

There were 22 fewer crimes than in the same period last year, PRM spokesman Inácio Dina told the press on Tusday (20 February). Fifty-nine percent of the total were crimes against property, and 30 percent crimes against the person.

Police have recovered 14 firearms from the hands of criminals the same period, and in fact do so almost every week. Asked about the origin of so many weapons, Dina blamed all entities that use weapons. “It is not just the police who have weapons. There are firearms in the various units of the army, SISE, security companies and even individuals who are legally authorised to carry weapons.”

Inacio Dina explained that, in principle, all legal weapons have a registry number in a database that can be assessed whenever a firearm is detected in criminal hands. “But as you might imagine, it is a complex process because we are talking about weapons registered across all eleven provinces.”

He also pointed out that the underworld also sources weapons from abroad, so it was not easy to pin down the true origin of many of the weapons.

Asked about the case of the Portuguese citizen supposedly abducted in Nampula province, Dina said that the case was in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office, because “from the police point of view everything was already done. So now only the Attorney General could give some information on the case, out of respect for procedural stages”.

Dina also said that, in Gaza’s Limpopo district, where angry mobs had destroyed public and private property at least twice, and even killed a citizen, calm had been restored.

“We were worried that the situation was moving from one location to another, but it is now under control and the people detained are being held accountable,” he concluded.

By Zaituna Migano

Source: O País