The president of Mozambique’s Supreme Court said on Thursday that there is no arrest warrant out against Venâncio Mondlane, the candidate in last month’s presidential election who is leading from abroad the biggest protests against election results the country has ever seen.
“In the Mozambican courts there is no arrest warrant against Venâncio Mondlane,” the judge, Adelino Muchanga, told journalists on the sidelines of an event organised by the office of Mozambique’s attorney general in Maputo. “This means that if he arrives in Mozambique now, he is naturally a free citizen.”
At issue are lawsuits filed against Mondlane, who has called protests that have caused major disruption across the country in recent weeks; one of the suits demands compensation of €1.5 million for the damage caused by the demonstrations.
Muchanga stresssed that an order for his detention can only be issued by a court, reiterating that the cases against Mondlane are still in the preparatory instruction phase at the Public Prosecution Service.
The Supreme Court president added that even an order to block Venâncio’s bank accounts can be appealed, as long as the accused does so within the process.
“Anyone who has an interest in reacting against a court decision must do so within the process,” he said. “If there is an order to block accounts, the interested party must go to the process and react within the process. The courts don’t persecute people.”
He added that “the courts will not be an obstacle to eventual social pacification”.
When asked about the actions of the police during the demonstrations, Muchanga highlighted the fact that Mozambique’s constitution protects peaceful demonstrations, but that it is illegal to vandalise public and private property. He acknowledged that in some cases there may be “excesses” on the part of the police and courts.
“Storming police stations and factories, blocking roads and borders are not peaceful demonstrations,” he said. “Now, when it comes to the actions of the authorities, I can’t say that everything that happens is necessarily legal. In some cases there may be excesses and situations that need to be investigated so that those who exceed the limits of the powers conferred on them by law can be held accountable.”
Protests against the election results have brought chaos to the streets in various parts of the country, with at least 110 people killed and more than 300 injured in clashes between police and demonstrators since October 21, according to an updated report by the non-governmental organisation Plataforma Eleitoral Decide.
The results of the 9 October elections announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) handed victory, with 70.67% of the vote, to Daniel Chapo, the candidate backed by the governing Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) party, with Mondlane a distant second, but the latter has refused to recognise them. The figures have yet to be validated by the Constitutional Council, which in Mozambique is the final court of appeal in electoral disputes.
In one of his last direct messages on the social network Facebook, Mondlane promised that he would be in Maputo to be sworn in as president of Mozambique on 15 January, the date scheduled for the inauguration of the new head of state.
“The fifth elected President of the Republic of Mozambique, elected by the people, will take office on the fifteenth,” he said in the video. “Be prepared!”
Lusa
