Court orders release of demonstrators

Maputo, 1 Nov (AIM) – A court in the Maputo municipal district of KaMpfumo on Tuesday ordered the release of 17 people whom the police had detained during last Friday’s demonstration in the city against the municipal election results.

The country’s main opposition party, Renamo, had called the demonstration the day after the National Elections Commission (CNE) had announced preliminary results showing the ruling Frelimo Party winning in 64 of the 65 municipalities. Renamo has dismissed the results as a “mega-fraud”.

On Friday, the Renamo candidate for mayor of Maputo, Venancio Mondlane, led a march through the city, intending to reach the headquarters of the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.

Although Mondlane stressed that Renamo had no intention of causing damage to the Council premises, and merely wanted to urge the Council to act in a transparent and impartial manner, the police blocked the march.

Street battles raged for a while, with the police firing tear gas into the crowd, and the demonstrators retaliating by throwing stones at the police.

According to Mondlane, the police detained 32 people (some of whom later said they were not on the Renamo march at all, but were passers-by caught up in the violence).

17 of them were held in small cells under conditions which their relatives and human rights activists described as “inhuman”.

They should have come to trial on Monday, but for reasons that remained unexplained the trial was postponed to Tuesday.

The judge dismissed the case against the 17, because the police had made an elementary mistake. They had not signed the writs under which they were bringing the 17 to trial. Since an unsigned document is not valid, the judge ordered the immediate release of the detainees.

The police had wanted to charge them with various public order offences, including association to obstruct the public highway, possession of home-made bombs, and destruction of public and private property. But incompetence in preparing the case ensured that the police never had a chance to present whatever evidence they had.

Mondlane told reporters that Renamo will demand that the state pay compensation to the 17 for wrongful arrest. He said they had been submitted to cruel treatment “and deprived of their freedom for five long days”.

Some of the detainees were students, and they said their arrests prevented them from sitting examinations on Monday and Tuesday.

Not only were conditions in the cell where they were held so cramped that they could not sleep properly, but the police also did not provide the detainees with any food. They depended on food brought by their families.

Mondlane promised that the Renamo marches against the election results will resume on Thursday. Some of the former detainees told reporters that, despite the ordeal they had just been through, they will attend Thursday’s demonstration.

“Yes, I will go, because this is a revolution”, said one of them, cited by the independent television station, STV. “This doesn’t end here. While they don’t listen to what the people want, this doesn’t end”.

(AIM)

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