Rui Balthazar always stood up for the oppressed

Maputo, 18 Jul (AIM) – Mozambique’s first Justice Minister, Rui Baltazar dos Santos Alves, who died last Saturday from illness at the age of 91, always knew how to stand up on behalf of oppressed people even when the country was under the Portuguese colonial system, declared President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday.

Speaking at Baltazar’s funeral, Nyusi said he was a man of unrivalled qualities “who, at an early age, in the 1960s, as a lawyer, defended our compatriots who were victims of the PIDE (the Portuguese political police responsible for repressing all forms of opposition to the colonial regime). It was in this political system and in the exercise of his profession as a lawyer that he was able to establish his nationalism, his fight for the ideal that we believed in.”

Nyusi explained that despite the persecution Rui Baltazar was subjected to when he defended the cause of the oppressed, he always knew how to stand up to the oppressor with the objective of fighting for independence and the construction of a fairer society for all Mozambicans.

“We pay this tribute with a sense of gratitude, because Rui Baltazar was a true patriot, a man of rules and principles. He stood out in the training of many young jurists in the rule of law, in the uncompromising defense of the democratic rule of law, in the separation and interdependence of the powers of the state”, Nyusi said.

Although he was legally retired, the President said, Rui Baltazar never distanced himself from the Constitutional Council, of which he was the first chairperson, and was always available to make his contribution

“His voice rang out in courts and classrooms, influencing judicial decisions, courts, and generations of lawyers, judges and law students. His legacy overflows in his judicial decisions and his writings”, he declared.

(AIM)

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