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Mozambique: Lawyers consider suing police for brutality
8:20 CAT | 04 Nov 2024
File photo: Ordem dos Advogados de Moçambique
The Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) on Friday repudiated the “physical attacks and death threats” made by police officers against the president of the Niassa provincial council, Celso Mendonça Diogo, and said is was considering taking criminal action against the officers.
“This macabre and inhumane act represents a flagrant violation of fundamental rights, as well as a direct affront to the free and independent exercise of the legal profession, an essential pillar for maintaining the rule of law and justice in society,” reads the note signed by the vice-president of the Niassa provincial council of the Mozambican Bar Association, Elísio Verniz Dauce.
Condemning Thursday’s “act of brutality,” the provincial council demanded “with the utmost urgency”that the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior “take the necessary measures for the rigorous investigation of this case, saying that those responsible should be punished.”
“The OAM will take measures aimed at ensuring that the agents involved will be held criminally responsible, as well as the state’s civil liability for the damage caused to the offended as a result of the acts carried out by the criminals, who are, by the way, state employees,” the body added.
According to the note, the “extremely serious” incident took place when Celso Mendonça Diogo was carrying out his professional activities in the district of Mecanhelas, something that the provincial council pointed out not only jeopardises the physical integrity of the perpetrator, “but also attacks the rights of the citizens whom he represents”.
The Niassa provincial council of the OAM demanded that preventive measures be adopted in the name of safety and respect for Mozambican lawyers, saying that “acts of violence will not be tolerated”.
The incident denounced by OAM’s Niassa provincial council follows the injuries suffered by five people last Saturday in Mecanhelas, in Niassa province, central Mozambique, after the police fired shots to disperse pro-Venâncio Mondlane demonstrators who had approached a rally with Frelimo supporters.
According to Angelina Cuaela, spokesperson for the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM) in Niassa, the riots took place after 10:00 (09:00 in Lisbon) that day, when “sympathisers of the Podemos party”, which supports presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, “took to the streets, demonstrating”.
She added that they set tyres on fire on a bridge and “then went to where the Frelimo party was holding its rally and threw burning tyres”, leading to police intervention.
“In that intervention, they hit five people with stray bullets,” said Angelina Cuaela, continuing: “The police were on the ground providing protection.”
On Thursday, Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced the victory of Daniel Chapo, supported by Frelimo (the party in power since 1975) in the elections for President of the Republic held on 9 October, with 70.67% of the vote.
Venâncio Mondlane, supported by the non-parliamentary Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), came second with 20.32% but says he does not recognise these results, which still have to be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.
In addition to Mondlane, the president of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, currently the largest opposition party), Ossufo Momade, one of the four presidential candidates, said he did not recognise the election results announced by the CNE and called for the vote to be annulled.
On Thursday, presidential candidate Lutero Simango, supported by the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), also rejected the results, considering that they had been “forged in the secretariat”, and promised “political and legal action” to restore the “will of the people”.
The CNE’s announcement of the results again sparked violent protests and clashes with the police in Mozambique, especially in Maputo.
Source: Lusa
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