Criminal investigation opens into escape and murder of two prisoners in Maputo – government

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Criminal investigation opens into escape and murder of two prisoners in Maputo – government

12:25 CAT | 12 May 2017

CRV Magazine / A photo of the police car that transported the prisoners who were subsequently killed, in a photo taken after their kidnapping took place in downtwon Maputo

The Mozambican police have opened an investigation to establish how two prisoners were taken out of a police vehicle and then murdered, the Interior Ministry has confirmed.

“Our obligation is to recommend that the PRM continue to investigate and to trace those who prepared the abduction and ordered the murder,” Interior Minister Basílio Monteiro told the audience at a police ceremony in Maputo.

Two bodies were found in a shallow grave on Friday by the residents of Moamba, 70 kilometres northwest of the capital.

The families identified the bodies as those of José Coutinho and Alfredo Muchanga, who were taken by hooded men who ambushed a prison vehicle transporting the pair in Maputo on April 24.

José Coutinho was one of three suspects in the murder a year ago of prosecutor Marcelino Vilanculo, who investigating abductions of businessmen involving Coutinho himself.

“We regret the fate of the two citizens,” Minister Monteiro said, while nonetheless discounting the possibility that the police themselves were involved in the escape of prisoners, a hypothesis put forward by the families of the victims.

“It is not likely that the police were using their own means to put their own lives at risk, but we took note of the relatives’ analysis,” Monteiro said, adding that he hoped to “clarify the situation as soon as possible”.

The Attorney General’s Office has also announced that the attack on the prison vehice in Maputo downtown is being investigated.

The murder of the two prisoners could be a “burning of the archives”, aimed at preventing the truth about the murder of prosecutor Marcelino Vilanculo from becoming known, former chairman of the Mozambique Bar Association, lawyer Gilberto Correia told Lusa on Monday.

“This situation shows the level of interconnection between organized crime and state institutions responsible for fighting crime. It demonstrates the level of infiltration of organized crime in state institutions,” he said.