Police claim promotion of assassins has been revoked – AIM report

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Police claim promotion of assassins has been revoked – AIM report

11:06 CAT | 31 Jan 2020

File photo: AIM

The Mozambican police claims that it has revoked the promotions granted to three members of the death squad who assassinated civil society and election observation activist Anastacio Matavel on 7 October.

Cited by the Portuguese news agency Lusa, the spokesperson for the General Command of the police, Orlando Mudumane, said that police commander Bernadino Rafael had annulled “in due time” the dispatches he had signed on 27 December promoting the three murderers.

From the interrogations by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, it is known that five members of the Gaza provincial branch of the Special Operations Group (GOE) of the police, namely Euclidio Mapulasse, Edson Silica, Agapito Matavele, Nobrega Chauque and Martins Wiliamo, received from their superior officers the “mission” to eliminate Anastacio Matavel, the Executive Director of the Gaza Provincial Forum of NGOs (FONGA), and Gaza representative of the election observation coalition known as the “Sala da Paz” (Peace Room).

The five assassins might have evaded justice, if their getaway car had not been involved in a major traffic accident. As the car sped away from the scene of the murder, it hit three other vehicles and overturned.

Nobrega Chauque and Martins Wiliamo died in the crash. Silica was injured, arrested and taken to the Xai-Xai provincial hospital. Mapulasse managed to flee from the crash, with a gun and headed for the Gaza command of the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR – the Mozambique riot police). Agapito Matavele also fled, taking two guns with him. Mapulasse was arrested later, but Agapito Matavele is still on the run.

Silica and Mapulasse are now awaiting trial for first degree murder, and Agapito Matavele remains a fugitive, believed to be in South Africa. Astonishingly, this did not stop the police from promoting all three of them.

According to last Friday’s issue of the independent weekly “Savana”, Silica’s name was included in a dispatch of 27 December which promoted a number of officers to the rank of police sub-inspector. Mapulasse and Agapito were promoted to sergeant in a separate dispatch.

For five days after “Savana” published his shocking news, the police general command neither confirmed nor denied the promotions.

But now Mudumane claims that it was all a mistake which has been corrected.

“It was a failing, and it has been corrected”, he said. “As soon as the mistake was detected, the promotions were revoked”. He did not say whether they were revoked before or after “Savana” alerted the public to the promotions.

Mudumane said the proposal to promote the three men was sent to Rafael before the assassination, along with hundreds of other proposals from all 11 provinces.

“The proposals to promote the police agents charged with this murder received a favourable dispatch in error”, he insisted, “but the situation has been corrected”.

When Lusa asked to see the dispatches revoking the promotions, Mudumane refused. “Institutional documents cannot be shown in public”, he claimed.

But “Savana” had obtained and published the original dispatches of 27 December. The police failure to show the “corrected” dispatches is bound to leave lingering doubts.

Source: AIM