Mozambique: Mondlane supporters get tear gassed at attorney general’s office

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Mozambique: Mondlane supporters get tear gassed at attorney general’s office

2:28 CAT | 11 Mar 2025

File photo: Luísa Nhantumbo / Lusa

Mozambican police fired tear gas in the vicinity of the attorney general’s office in Maputo on Tuesday to disperse dozens of supporters of Venâncio Mondlane, who is being heard in a case related to the post-election demonstrations.

Since early this morning, a strong police presence has prevented car and pedestrian traffic on Avenida Vladimir Lenine, the headquarters of the attorney general’s office (PGR), with dozens of supporters of the former presidential candidate gathered in the vicinity, shouting their support.

At around 12:20 p.m. local time (two hours less in Lisbon), the police fired tear gas and deployed riot squads to move the supporters away from the area closest to the PGR, in the centre of Maputo.

Venâncio Mondlane arrived at the PGR at around 9am local time, and some shouts of support could already be heard.

“I’m calm,” said the politician, speaking to journalists outside the PGR, which he once again labelled “biased and partisan”, and then headed inside.

Earlier, at 7am, at the main accesses to that avenue, which runs through the heart of Maputo, a strong contingent from the police’s Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR), including the canine force, was positioned, advising some of Venâncio Mondlane’s supporters who remained outside the PGR, which is opposite the Supreme Court, to leave the area.

Venâncio Mondlane is being heard today at the PGR on one of the eight cases in which he is being targeted as part of the post-election protests and social unrest in Mozambique.

“My expectations aren’t that great,” the former presidential candidate told journalists at Maputo airport on Monday, after a few days away from the country in Botswana, when asked about the summons at the PGR, revealing that he was aware that he was being targeted in eight cases.

Mondlane said he didn’t know which of the lawsuits he would be answering today, but declared himself ‘ready’ to answer and said that the aim of these lawsuits is to “intimidate, terrorise and frighten”.

On the other hand, Venâncio Mondlane recalled the various lawsuits and complaints he has submitted to the PGR in recent months, including an alleged attempt on his life during the campaign for the general elections on 9 October, in which he ran for the Presidency of the Republic.

He also pointed to the complaint he filed with the PGR about 398 cases of ‘extreme violence’ against members of his ‘political organisation’, including ‘40 deaths’, stressing that, so far, no developments have been made in any of the cases, which is why he accused the institution of ‘partiality’.

The hearing at the PGR was scheduled for Monday, but at the politician’s request it was postponed until today.

On 22 November, the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office demanded €1.5 million in compensation for the damage caused by the demonstrations in Maputo province, in a new case against Mondlane and Podemos, the party that supported him until February this year.

This was the second civil lawsuit of its kind to be announced, after another that the Public Prosecutor’s Office filed with the Maputo City Court, only concerning damage in the capital, asking for compensation of 32,377,276.46 meticais ( €486,000).

On 27 January, the PGR announced the opening of proceedings considering that Mondlane’s self-styled “presidential decree” subverts the principles of the democratic state.

At issue was a document signed and circulated by Mondlane at the time, entitled ‘decree’, published in the self-styled ‘Jornal do Povo’ (journal of the people), with 30 measures for 100 days, one of which stated that “it is up to the people, the victims, to establish themselves as an autonomous court that issues sentences to stop the macabre wave of the UIR, GOE and Sernic’, referring to units of the police forces that he accused of an “incessant flurry of summary executions”.

The PGR believes that “the publication of the alleged decree (…) constitutes a flagrant violation” of the Constitution.

Source: Lusa