Murrupula corpses exhumed for forensic analysis; PGR leading investigation

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Murrupula corpses exhumed for forensic analysis; PGR leading investigation

2:08 CAT | 24 Oct 2018

Murrupula district. Source: Google maps

The seven bodies found in a forest and speedily buried in a common grave in the district of Murrupula, Nampula province, were exhumed yesterday (23-11) and subjected to autopsy for identification and verification of cause of death, A Verdade reports.

The same source writes that all seven victims, aged 21 to 36 years, had been buried bare-chested.

Police spokesman Inácio Dina said it was premature to advance details about the occurrence, but that the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) and the PRM had been deployed to the locality in the administrative post of Chinga where the corpses were buried.

The Ministry of Health (MISAU) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) have also visited the site in the hope of clarifying what happened.

“This morning a joint team of PRM, SERNIC and medical personnel joined the local authorities to initiate the investigation process,” Dina said, cited by O Pais.

Dina explained that, although the bodies had been buried on Saturday at the instigation of the local authorities, it was important for the forensic medical team to determine the causes and circumstances of the five men and two women’s death, thereby better targeting the work of the other investigation services, O Pais reports.

The team which travelled to the area yesterday and exhumed the corpses is made up of members of the Ministry of Health, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) and the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic).

The judicial and health authorities are seeking an explanation for the deaths, as well as the provenance of the seven dead. “The medical examinations and investigation processes will furnish answers,” Nampula public prosecutor Cristóvão Muleica said, cited by Lusa.

The investigation is headed by the public prosecutor’s office in Nampula which, after learning of the discovery, decided to create a multi-sectoral team, Muleica added.

Residents of the village reported in yesterday’s edition of O Pais having heard a car travelling to the place where the bodies were discovered on Thursday night, and reported that the bodies were abandoned on the ground without signs of violence. As no-one recognised them, it was assumed they were from elsewhere.

USSALAMA 5

In the regular weekly police briefing yesterday, Dina also reported on Operation USSALAMA 5, carried out simultaneously from September 27 to October 2 by police in all countries in the region, and whose objective is to combat and prevent cross-border crime such as smuggling, trafficking in drugs, people and weapons, and car theft.

“This operation involves experts from Interpol and other specialities that have in their possession a database of stolen weapons, vehicles or other goods,” he said.

Dina mentioned the detention of 30 individuals within the scope of the operation, and reported the seizure of two weapons: an AK47-type assault rifle with four rounds of ammunition and a pistol. Given that, as Dina said, the operation also aimed to combat trafficking in flora and fauna products, 125.5 kilograms of cannabis sativa were seized, as well as a quantity of wild boar meat. Several utensils produced from aluminium cables, understood to be the result of the reported sabotage of power transmission lines, were also seized.

Regional police chiefs will meet in Pretoria, South Africa, on 6 and 7 December to evaluate the operation.

Dina also mentioned the men detained in Tanzania who allegedly intended to establish bases in the north of Mozambique and carry out terrorist actions in Cabo Delgado. Dina said that the number of detainees had risen to 132 and that police were currently in contact with their Tanzanian counterparts hoping to source more information on the matter.

Source: A Verdade / O País / Lusa