Top opposition lawyer murdered

Maputo, 19 Oct (AIM) – Unknown assailants murdered prominent opposition lawyer, Elvino Dias, in Maputo shortly after midnight on Saturday morning.

Dias was the lawyer for independent presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, and for the Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), the main extra-parliamentary party that supported Mondlane’s bid for the presidency.

Also killed in the hail of bullets fired at the lawyer was Paulo Guambe, a Podemos election agent in the general elections held on 9 October.

According to a report in the independent newsheet “Carta de Mocambique”, the murders took place at between 00.30 and 00.40 on Saturday morning, on Joaquim Chissano Avenue, in the Coop neighbourhood in central Maputo.

Dias and Guambe, who were sitting in the front of the car were intercepted by two unknown men, bearing firearms, who immediately opened fire. According to the television station, “TV Sucesso”, two people sitting in the back seats of the car survived.

The killing occurred about 100 metres from the Pulmao market, in Malhangalene neighbourhood, where the two men had been socializing with friends. This is a place that Elvino Dias frequented habitually.

One of the first reactions to the murders came from Tomas Timbane, a former president of the Mozambican Bar Association. On his Facebook page, he declared “Advocacy is in mourning. The rule of law is in mourning. Mozambique does not deserve this. We do not deserve it”.

The last time a political activist was gunned down was in October 2019, in the city of Xai-Xai, capital of the southern province of Gaza. The victim then was Anastacio Matavele, the head of a civil society election observer group.

His killers were members of a death squad operating inside the police force. We know this because the murderers bungled their getaway, and became involved in a major traffic accident in which two of their number were killed. Four other members of the death squad were put on trial and sentenced to up to 24 years imprisonment for their part in the murder.

So far the police have not commented on the murders of Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe.
(AIM)
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