Mozambique: Sentencing date set for defendants in Amurane murder case

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Mozambique: Sentencing date set for defendants in Amurane murder case

4:22 CAT | 20 Oct 2022

File photo: Notícias

Nampula Judicial Court has scheduled the reading of the sentence in the Mahamudo Amurane murder case for November 2nd. The late mayor of Nampula city was shot dead on October 4th, 2017.

In the dock are former municipal councillor Saíde Abdulremane and local businessman Zainal Satar, accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the murder of Mahamudo Amurane in 2017.

The trial in the case of the former mayor of Nampula began in June, after the High Court of Appeal of Nampula a year ago annulled a court order dismissing the charges against the two men, accused of being the authors of the mayor’s death.

On Monday, Nampula Judicial Court heard evidence from a National Criminal Investigation Service ballistics expert and the medical examiner from Nampula Central Hospital.

The prosecution’s indictment indicates that the defendants were responsible for the shots that took the life of Mahamudo Amurane on October 4th, 2017, in the wake of a disagreement over the allocation of a space in the city centre.

According to the indictment, the businessman had signed a memorandum of understanding with the municipal councillor, without the mayor’s knowledge, for the acquisition of a space in the city centre. The document was later revoked by Mahamudo Amurane, leading to the disagreement.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the investigations of the Mozambican authorities indicate that the two defendants sent a sum of €2,000 to the mayor’s account, who returned the amount as soon as he realised it was an attempt at bribery.

Although the defendants claim that the shots that took Amurane’s life were fired by a third party who broke into the mayor’s residence, the Public Prosecutor’s Office maintains that Saíde Abdulremane and Zainal Satar were the only people who were with Amurane when he was shot, and the expert examinations carried out show that the bullets were fired at close range, although the defence claims that doubts about the position of the shooter are raised by the Nampula Central Hospital medical examiner’s statement.

Mahamudo Amurane, mayor of Nampula. was elected on the lists of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique, the third-largest political party in Mozambique. He died on the public holiday celebrating the Rome General Peace Agreement, after being shot three times early in the evening on the ground floor of his house in Nampula city.

The crime caused widespread consternation across Mozambique to parties including President of the Republic Filipe Nyusi, foreign diplomatic representation in Maputo and various civil society organisations.

Source: Lusa