Mozambique: Judges must not give in to fear of threats – Constitutional Council

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Mozambique: Judges must not give in to fear of threats – Constitutional Council

4:43 CAT | 17 Nov 2025

Photo: Embaixada de Timor-Leste em Maputo, Moçambique

The president of Mozambique’s Constitutional Council, Lúcia Ribeiro, said on Monday that judges must not “give in to fear” of any threats, as the Mozambican body marks its 22nd anniversary.

“What we have done so far only proves that we are capable of doing much more and better, but to do so we must never fall into complacency, inertia, the temptation to take the easy way out, and much less give in to fear of any threats, whoever they may come from,” said Lúcia Ribeiro during the ceremony held today in Maputo to mark 50 years of Mozambican constitutionalism and 22 years of the Constitutional Council.

In November 2024, after the general elections on 9 October, the Constitutional Council (CC – the body responsible for announcing the election results) reported that judges were “the target of threats, including death threats, sent by private messages or posted on social media,” stressing that such “intimidation is not a weapon of democracy, but rather a constituent element of a legal type of crime,” according to a statement released at the time and signed by the president.

Last Friday, the Mozambican Association of Judges (AMJ) reported threats against two members of the judiciary, stating that these acts “seriously” undermine the authority of the judicial system, and called for a swift investigation and accountability for the perpetrators.

In a statement, the Mozambican judges indicated that threats against two judges and the spouse of one of them, accused of corruption in a case already tried, are circulating on social media and other digital platforms, with the association considering the allegations in the messages to be “unfounded”.

The president of the CC recalled today the World Conference on Constitutional Justice held last month in Spain, noting that the event highlighted “attacks on jurisdictions and their judges” by “digital militias” as one of the challenges facing “constitutional courts” in the face of “all the winds blowing in almost every part of the world”.

“Attacks on constitutional jurisdictions come from new extremist and populist groups that seek to destroy democracy and see constitutional justice as an obstacle to their goals,” said Lúcia Ribeiro, also pointing to the proliferation of fake news on social media and political attacks on constitutional justice, “through the deliberate alteration of its composition with each government cycle,” as other challenges mentioned at the conference.

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Lúcia Ribeiro also said that there is “a long way to go” and “much to do” as the Constitutional Council marks its 22nd anniversary, thanking the staff of that institution for their support and dedication.

“We are proud of what we have done as an institution, achievements that would not have been possible without a team of dedicated professionals who fly the flag of self-improvement,” she said.

On 27 October, the association of Mozambican jurists also denounced intimidation of judges and the public prosecutor’s office, asking the government for “special protection” to guarantee the safety of these professionals.

“We have judges and prosecutors who are intimidated in their work. Some intimidation is not even physical, but takes the form of other means of moral coercion, and this has to stop, because when those who have to apply the law are not free to do so, this naturally exacerbates security problems,” said José Caldeira, president of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Mozambican Jurists (Anjur).

Source: Lusa