Mozambican police revokes promotion of officers charged with homicide of election observer

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Mozambican police revokes promotion of officers charged with homicide of election observer

9:15 CAT | 29 Jan 2020

File photo; Sala da Paz

The promotion of Mozambican police officers charged with murdering an electoral observer have been “revoked on the spot,” a source from the General Command of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) told Lusa today.

PRM Commander General spokesman Orlando Modumane said that the corporation’s commander general, Bernardino Rafael, had cancelled the orders he had signed promoting to deputy inspector and sergeant two of the five agents accused of involvement in the murder of Anastácio Matavel.

“It was a flaw, which was corrected. As soon as the error was detected, the promotions were revoked,” declared Orlando Modumane.

Modumane stressed that the promotion proposals were sent to the PRM Commander-General before the murder, along with “hundreds of proposals” from all provinces.

“The proposals to promote the agents accused in this murder received a favourable decision by mistake, but the situation has been corrected,” Modumane insisted.

Asked by Lusa about whether orders to revoke promotions are available for inspection, Modumane said that they were “institutional documents” and could not be “displayed in public”.

“What matters is that the promotions have been revoked,” he said.

The orders signed by Bernardino Rafael, dated December 27, promoted Edson Silica to deputy inspector of the police and Agapito Matavele to sergeant.

Silica and Matavele were formally accused by the Gaza Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of participating in the murder of Anastácio Matavel, a representative of Sala da Paz, a coalition of electoral observation non-governmental organisations.

Matavel was shot in broad daylight on the 7th of October, a week before the October 15th general elections. In November, the Gaza Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, southern Mozambique, charged eight defendants, including five police officers, with the crime.

The murder of Anastácio Matavel provoked condemnation both in Mozambique and abroad. A civil society activist involved in electoral observation, he died during an election campaign in a province known for its political intolerance of opponents of the ruling Front of Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo).

Source: Lusa