Mozambique: Petition to declare unconstitutional new time limits on pre-trial detention

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Mozambique: Petition to declare unconstitutional new time limits on pre-trial detention

1:05 CAT | 08 Apr 2021

Photo: O País

The Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) has submitted to the Constitutional Council a petition to verify some norms of the new Criminal Procedure Code.

Casemiro Duarte and his team have set aside Wednesday to demand that the Constitutional Council to look into some norms in the new Criminal Procedure Code, due to possible unconstitutionalities in the document.

Time limits for pre-trial detention are the most resounding issue in the new legal instrument to generate “discontent”, and not only among lawyers.

The fact is that the new Criminal Procedure Code allows the extension of the terms of pre-trial detention, in a way which, in the eyes of the OAM, creates a climate of uncertainty, regardless of the crime committed.

According to the Mozambican Bar Association, the new deadlines go against the norms of the Constitution of the Republic and the rights of citizens.

“The individual may be in prison for a long time, without knowing effectively when the pre-trial detention ends, insofar as it depends on the verification of facts, which are not at all controllable. We think that this has to be corrected, which is why we submitted the petition,” Duarte explained.

The OAM also said that the constitutionality of the new deadlines should be fully verified due to the repercussions that may reverberate in the other norms of the legal instrument, approved in December last year.

In addition, Wednesday also served for a brief look at the situation of terrorism in Cabo Delgado, on which occasion the president characterised the impacts of the war as disastrous and worrisome.

“It is a disastrous situation, in terms of what are the impacts of this war; we are in an extremely complicated situation,” he said.

Duarte suggested that the government create an official communication channel to avoid misinformation about the terrorist and violent attacks in Cabo Delgado spreading.

“People, when they are informed, speculate less; when they are misinformed, they speculate more. Sometimes these speculations result from the lack of an information channel from the government itself, which would be official, and which would allow us to become aware of certain aspects,” he proposed.

Duarte acknowledged the difficulties entailed, which he said were typical of any war scenario, but reiterated the need to keep citizens informed about the state of affairs in the northern operational theatre.

Source: O País