Police threaten companion of Ericino de Salema

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Police threaten companion of Ericino de Salema

11:50 CAT | 07 Apr 2018

DW (File photo)

The Mozambican police, on Friday afternoon, called a Maputo press conference on the case of Ericino de Salema, the journalist kidnapped and tortured on 27 March, not to announce any advance in the investigations, but to threaten one of Salema’s companions accused of taking illicit photographs in a restricted area of Maputo international airport.

Journalists from most of the main Maputo-based media rushed to the Interior Ministry on receiving the unexpected call, in the hope that there had possibly been a breakthrough in the investigations. They were dismayed to find that the sole purpose of the press conference was to protest at photographs of alleged mistreatment of Salema by the police at the airport on Thursday, and to threaten the author of the photographs, which appeared on various social media.

Salema’s kidnappers broke bones in both his legs before abandoning him on the Maputo Ring Road in Marracuene district. After initial surgery in a Maputo clinic, Salema decided to go abroad for further treatment and flew to South Africa on Thursday.

Normally passengers embark via the first floor, but Salema, who was in a wheelchair, could not reach the first floor because the lift was out of order. Airport staff suggested he, his wife, Neusa Ribeiro, and a second companion, embark via a restricted area on the ground floor.

The airport police, however, created difficulties, described in detail in a report in Friday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”. The situation was made worse by an unidentified individual in plain clothes, claiming to be a policeman, who tried to prevent Salema’s companions from accompanying him into the restricted area.

At this point Salema’s second companion, who was pushing the wheelchair, started taking pictures, and was called into the airport police station and told to delete the photos from his cell phone.

At the Friday press conference, Inacio Dina, spokesperson of the General Command of the police, said that, because photos had appeared on social media, Salema’s companion (whom he did not name) must have kept the photos, instead of deleting them. “This constitutes the crime of disobeying the police authorities”, he declared.

Access to restricted areas in airports, he said, is subject to rule, including not taking photos. So “responsibilities arising from these facts will be ascertained”, he threatened. “Police officers are state authorities and must be respected as such. Failure to do so is an illicit act”.

Dina claimed that the police had not behaved badly towards Salema at the airport, but he showed no signs of having read the “Mediafax” report. When AIM asked him questions based on this report, he could not, or would not answer.

Source: AIM