Mozambique: Quelimane mayor cleared of libel charges

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Mozambique: Quelimane mayor cleared of libel charges

7:25 CAT | 22 Jun 2021

File photo: DW

The Quelimane city court, in central Mozambique, has fully cleared the city’s mayor, Manuel de Araujo, of libel charges brought against him by two members of his former party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).

Araujo was elected mayor on the MDM ticket in a by-election in 2011, and then re-elected in the nationwide municipal elections of 2013. MDM members in Quelimane were perfectly happy to run Araujo for a further term of office in the 2018 local elections.

But, much to their annoyance, Araujo defected from the MDM and rejoined the country’s largest opposition party, Renamo. So when Araujo was re-elected in 2018, it was as the Renamo candidate.

When he was sworn into office for his new term in February 2019, Araujo publicly declared that, if he were to be assassinated, those responsible for his murder would be Jose Maria Lobo and Domingos de Albuquerque, two prominent members of the MDM.

The two regarded the public accusation that they were planning to murder the mayor as clearly defamatory, so they sued Araujo.

Araujo was acquitted of criminal libel in May under a law of April 2020 which granted amnesty for crimes punishable with imprisonment of up to one year, as part of a package of measures to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 respiratory disease. (The argument was that amnestying relatively minor offences would reduce overcrowding in the prisons. Such overcrowding is an invitation to the spread of Covid-19).

But the amnesty was “without prejudice to civil liability arising from the acts committed”. So the civil case by the two MDM members against Araujo continued. They were demanding damages of seven million meticais (about 111,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates).

However, the court has now cleared Araujo, even in the civil case, and so he will not have to pay a penny to Lobo and Albuquerque.

The two MDM members are not given up, and say they intend to appeal against the court’s decision.

Source: AIM