Mozambique: CDD criticises closing case about missing journalist

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Mozambique: CDD criticises closing case about missing journalist

10:27 CAT | 30 Aug 2024

in file CoM

The Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD), a non-governmental organisation, on Thursday criticised the decision by Mozambique’s Attorney General’s Office to close the case over the disappearance of journalist Ibrahimo Mbaruco in Cabo Delgado.

‘CDD said that closing the case is a continuation of the Attorney General’s Office’s denial of access to justice for journalists who, given the nature of their activities, are defenders of human rights, truth, justice, democracy and the rule of law,’ the NGO said in a statement distributed to the media yesterday.

A source in the Attorney General’s Office revealed to Lusa on 9 August that the case regarding Ibrahimo Abu Mbaruco’s disappearance would be closed.

Ibrahimo Abu Mbaruco, a journalist for a community radio station in the district of Palma, in the province of Cabo Delgado ravaged by armed conflict since 2017, in northern Mozambique, has been missing since 7 April 2020, in unclear circumstances.

The Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body, MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa), which at the time sent a mission to the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado to investigate the case, reported that shortly before his disappearance, Ibraimo had sent a short message (SMS) to one of his work colleagues, informing him that he was ‘surrounded by military’. What happened next is unknown.

At the time, several international organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the European Union, called for efforts to locate the journalist.

Cabo Delgado, a province where natural gas extraction megaprojects are underway, has been facing an armed insurgency since 2017 that has been classified as a terrorist threat, an armed rebellion with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State.

In 2019, two local journalists in the region covering the issue, Amade Abubacar and Germano Adriano, were detained and interrogated by the authorities for four months on charges of violating state secrets and inciting disorder, in a case contested by the United Nations and other organisations.

According to the CDD, in addition to the dismissal of the Ibrahimo case, the case concerning the assault on journalist Coutinho Macanaze at a polling station during last year’s local elections was also dismissed.

‘Coutinho Macanaze, a journalist for TV Sucesso, was assaulted by members of the polling stations while he was covering live the partial tabulation of the fraudulent Municipal Elections of 11 October,’ reads the document.

The organisation also criticised the fact that the Attorney General’s Office said it had no evidence to pursue the cases in both cases.

‘The CDD condemns, in the strongest terms, the closure of the cases because it condones attacks on press freedom, human rights defenders and impunity,’ it added.

Source: Lusa