Mozambique: Parliament to probe MP’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking – Watch

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Mozambique: Parliament to probe MP’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking – Watch

1:06 CAT | 29 Dec 2022

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

On Tuesday, the national crime investigation service (Sernic) said it had no case against a member of parliament.

Mozambique’s parliament has set up a commission of enquiry to investigate complaints made by the opposition about the involvement of a member of parliament in drug trafficking, an official source said.

“If there is a possibility of involvement, [the MP in question] will have to answer to the law,” the chairman of the commission of enquiry, António Niquice, told the media in Maputo.

At issue is a complaint made on 1 December by the MP from the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) Venâncio Mondlane about the alleged existence of a ruling party MP involved in drug trafficking from the port of Macuse, in central Mozambique’s Zambézia province.

The parliamentary commission of enquiry set up to investigate the case is made up of seven members, four from the ruling Frelimo party, two from Renamo, the main opposition force, and one from the Mozambique Democratic Movement.

The commission’s work will start on 9 January 2023, and a report on the case is expected in February.

Although Venâncio Mondlane’s denunciation refers to a member of parliament of the ruling party (Frelimo) elected by the constituency of Zambézia, the name of the member of parliament in question was not revealed.

The case came to light in November this year, when the authorities arrested an officer of the armed forces attached to the Macuse naval base and a teacher from a local secondary school on suspicion of trafficking hard drugs, in a scheme in which, according to the main opposition party, a member of parliament was also involved.

On Tuesday, the national crime investigation service (Sernic) said it had no case against a member of parliament.

Watch the Miramar report.