Mozambique: Criminal investigation police now under attorney general’s control

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Mozambique: Criminal investigation police now under attorney general’s control

7:30 CAT | 27 May 2025

Photo: O País

The Mozambican parliament on Monday definitively approved the draft bill amending the law on the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), which will now come under the authority of the attorney general, with all MPs voting in favour.

The four parliamentary groups, namely the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), the Optimistic People for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), voted in favour of the proposed revision of the SERNIC law, considering that it will allow greater dynamism in criminal investigation services.

Earlier, when requesting approval of the draft bill, Mozambique’s minister for justice had admitted that, over the years, there had been ‘weaknesses’ in the performance of SERNIC in its role as an auxiliary body to the judicial authorities.

“The fact that SERNIC is under the supervision of an executive body, in a way, conflicts with the principle of separation of executive and judicial powers, given that SERNIC acts legally under the authority of the Public Prosecutor, which means that SERNIC has a dual functional dependence,” said Mozambique’s minister for justice, Mateus Saize, at that time.

With the approval of the draft bill, SERNIC will come under the supervision of the attorney general, definitively ending the constraints arising from its dual dependence, as SERNIC was priorly also subordinate to the interior minister.

“In its mission, SERNIC is essentially an investigative and technical-criminal body, which is not consistent with its current status as an administrative public service. It is more consistent to classify it as a specialised criminal police force, responsible for assisting the judicial authorities in carrying out the purposes of the investigation,” the Mozambican minister for justice said at the time in his statement.

“Experience over the years has demonstrated weaknesses in SERNIC’s performance in its mission as an auxiliary body to the judicial authorities, resulting from the fact that it is under the supervision of an executive body, included in the defence and security forces, which in a way conflicts with the principle of separation of executive and judicial powers,” Minister Saize had then added.

With the approval of the draft bill yesterday, it will now be the responsibility of the attorney general to make general recommendations on the work of SERNIC, in line with the aims of criminal investigation and preliminary investigation of criminal proceedings, as well as to approve SERNIC’s annual budget proposals.

The new SERNIC law also gives the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) the power to verify compliance by SERNIC bodies with the country’s laws and regulations and to revoke any illegal administrative acts.

The newly approved law provides for the creation of specialised investigation units within SERNIC, dedicated to organised and transnational crime, asset recovery, corruption, cybercrime and financial and accounting expertise.

Source: Lusa