Mozambique: Mondlane charged with “incitement to terrorism” – AIM report

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Mozambique: Mondlane charged with “incitement to terrorism” – AIM report

6:10 CAT | 23 Jul 2025

Photo: Lusa

The Mozambican Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) on Tuesday charged former presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane with “incitement to terrorism”.

Mondlane was questioned at the PGR and given the charge sheet against him. He told reporters and a crowd of his supporters that he was accused of five crimes – namely public apology for crime, incitement to collective disobedience, public instigation to crime, instigation of terrorism and incitement to terrorism.

Mondlane denied committing any of these crimes. His real offence, he said, was “to tear the veil from fraud and resist a dictatorial regime which keeps itself in power through guns, murder and kidnapping”.

He said that the current president, Daniel Chapo, was “elected by the riot police and by the Constitutional Council”.

Chapo, of course, has repeatedly insisted that he was duly elected in the general elections held last October. But neither Chapo nor Mondlane have produced documentary evidence proving victory in the elections.

The only valid evidence would be the results sheets from the polling stations, and these have never been made public. As the highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, the Constitutional Council could have demanded a recount of the votes. It refused to do so, and instead tinkered with the final numbers of votes, taking some votes away from Chapo, and giving them to Mondlane, but never explaining the alterations. The Council thus bears a heavy responsibility for the violence and bloodshed that followed the announcement of the results.

READ: Mozambique: Venâncio Mondlane charged with five crimes, incitement to collective disobedience and instigation of terrorism included

Mondlane explained the consensus reached in his two meetings with Chapo. This included an end to all forms of physical and verbal violence, free access to the national health service and to medicines for all those injured in the clashes between demonstrators and the police, compensation for the families of those killed in the unrest, and freeing those detained during the demonstrations. In addition, the authorities should assist in the registration of the political party being formed by Mondlane.

Mondlane accused Chapo of not complying with any of these points. Instead, he frequently used “aggressive and incendiary language”, and, although there have not been any anti-government demonstrations for months, Chapo continues to denounce “violent, illegal and criminal demonstrations”.

Mondlane regarded this as “a flagrant example of instigation to resentment, to hatred among Mozambicans” and as “sufficient incentive to abandon the spirit of reconciliation and pardon”.

Chapo has denied reaching any formal agreement with Mondlane – but Mondlane pointed out that there were reputable witnesses to both meetings. The coordinator of these witnesses was a senior academic, Severino Ngoenha, Vice-Chancellor of the Technical University of Mozambique (UDM). The witnesses also include a former judge on the Constitutional Council, Teodato Hunguana, prominent writer Luis Bernardo Honwana, former Interior Minister Jose Oscar Monteiro, and the chairperson of the Bar Association, Carlos Martins.

Mondlane said he raised with the prosecutors the investigation into the murder of his lawyer, Elvino Dias, in central Maputo, on 19 October. The PGR told him the matter is “sub judice”. Mondlane pointed out that there are plenty of surveillance cameras in banks and other institutions near the murder site, and, if the PGR was interested in gathering evidence, it could look at the footage.

As for the accusations made by Amnesty International about serious violations of human rights, the PGR said the “relevant legal procedures” are still under way. The PGR had the same laconic response to the complaints of human rights abuses that Mondlane himself has raised.

Mondlane accused the PGR of “selective use of the law” which favoured those who conformed to electoral fraud, but treated opponents “in a draconian fashion” to force them to go down on their knees.

Source: AIM