Police officers handed nine-year prison sentence for raping teenager in Inhambane – Mozambique

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Police officers handed nine-year prison sentence for raping teenager in Inhambane – Mozambique

1:24 CAT | 24 Nov 2016

Noticias

The Inhambane City Judicial Court on Wednesday sentenced two members of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) to nine years in jail for the sexually assaulting a 17-year-old minor in the city’s 2nd Police Station in August of this year.

The men are Wilson Bernardo Mbambamba and Sérgio Francisco Macamo, both single and 24 years of age. The sentence does offer any right to alternative sentences, according to judge Alexandre Jovo. The two defendants must also pay the victim 25,000 meticais for moral damages within 15 days.

According to the prosecution, the two officers found the girl in the company of a friend at around 7:00 pm on the day in question, and sent the boy off in order to commit the crime. This they accomplished by threatening the girl with a pistol. The girl afterwards filed a complaint with the PRM command in Inhambane which was then sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

During the giving of evidence, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said that, although the accused deny any involvement in the rape of the girl, the investigation concluded that there was forced copulation.

According to a report presented by prosecutor Angela Chongo, the interior walls of the building of the police station, which is still under rehabilitation, bore the marks of the victim hands, leaving no doubt that she was in an uncomfortable position.

Arlindo Alfredo, chief of the operations of the 2nd Inhambane Police Station, testified in court that there was no straw mat such as was reported by the victim in the facilities where the rape was alleged to have occurred. As for the marks on the wall, they could have been old and were typical of a building undergoing rehabilitation, especially since the paint was white, Alfredo said.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office however disagreed and asked for exemplary and severe punishment for the two policemen.

Judge Alexandre Jovo therefore handed down the sentence of nine years’ imprisonment, adding that the fact that the victim was underage weighed heavily in the sentencing, as it was up to the two agents of the law to protect her, since they were presumed to be knowledgeable in law enforcement.

The 14-page ruling states that there was no doubt that the defendants detained the young woman and her 18-year-old boyfriend, A. Ernesto, and took them to the police station for driving at night without identification, in order to initiate proceedings against them.

More seriously, according to the judge, the PRM agents did not raise any plea in the action concerning the detention of the girl and her boyfriend, nor of another individual who was in the same police station indicted with drug use at the time.

Challenged on the girl’s age by the defence during the trial, the judge said that the minority of the complainant was confirmed by the report of the Inhambane Provincial Hospital coroner, who also confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted.

“If the girl had said that she was 10 years old or 60, obviously the medical examiner, would determine the true age, based on her knowledge, so yes, the raped girl is a minor,” the judge said.

According to the judge, the attempt to persuade the victim and her next of kin to resolve the case extrajudicially with a payment of ten thousand meticais demonstrated guilt. He also said that, in forcing a sexual act upon the girl, the police officers had forgotten one of their primary responsibilities, that of protecting minors.

The defendant’s lawyer, David Foloco Júnior, however, told the court that he was not satisfied with the sentence and that he would make a decision on the possibility of an appeal after conferring with his clients.

He said there was room and legal provisions for appeal if necessary, but recognised that the court had acted according to its interpretation of the law and its conscience.

Source: A Verdade / Noticias