- Defendants had been accused of crimes against state security; judge rules evidence was obtained illegally, including under torture
- Venâncio Mondlane says it was a political case in which the government used the justice system to persecute opponents
By MOZTIMES
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – Twelve opposition members, including writer Alex Barga, were released on Monday by a Maputo court after spending around nine months in prison on charges of crimes against state security. The examining judge concluded that evidence had been tampered with and ruled not to indict any of the defendants.
The case dates back to January, during the post-election protests, when police arrested 12 people in Marracuene district, among them writer Alex Barga, whose real name is Alex Nhambanga. The detainees were not engaged in any unlawful activity, but the Public Prosecutor accused them of conspiring against state security, a charge that could carry a sentence of more than 20 years in prison.
According to Nelson Cossa, one of the defence lawyers, the 12 were charged with “conspiracy to commit crimes against state security, violent alteration of the rule of law, and criminal association”.
“The court based its decision not to indict the defendants on the finding that all the evidence had been obtained through unlawful means,” Cossa told MOZTIMES. He said investigators had carried out property seizures without warrants, accessed confidential banking documents without judicial authorisation, made arrests in homes without warrants, falsified dates in official records, conducted hearings without legal representation, and extracted confessions under torture.
The post-election demonstrations in Mozambique lasted around five months, led by opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane. Official results credited him with 24% of the vote, but several domestic and international observers reported massive fraud. Mondlane declared himself the winner based on parallel tallies carried out by his campaign and refused to recognise the official outcome.
Police repression was marked by extreme violence, leaving more than 580 people dead, most of them young protesters, hundreds injured, and over 4,000 arrested. The majority of those detained remain behind bars, while volunteer lawyers from the Mozambican Bar Association continue to seek their release through the courts. The 12 freed on Monday are among the most prominent, but thousands remain imprisoned.
Mondlane told MOZTIMES that “the police are being used by the regime as an instrument to persecute its opponents”, and described the atrocities committed against the defendants.
“There was torture and even death threats,” Mondlane said in a phone interview. “This shows that those running the state are unfit for a democratic rule of law. We have a government hijacked by organised crime. The mafias have taken over the justice system, particularly the criminal investigation police.”
Even so, the opposition leader noted that the examining judge “applied the law impartially to dismantle the charges”, which he described as “a major defeat for the police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office”.
As part of political dialogue with President Daniel Chapo, Mondlane had announced he had secured an amnesty for all those detained during the protests. Chapo, however, denied any such agreement, insisting that the matter was for the courts to decide. (MT)
