Nyusi demands speedy action over Elvino Dias murder

Maputo, 23 Oct (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday condemned the murders last Friday night of Elvino Dias, the lawyer for independent presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, and Paulo Guambe, an election agent for the Podemos political party, which had supported Mondlane’s presidential bid.

Nyusi was speaking over four days after the murders, and he had come under criticism for this delay. But on Tuesday, the government spokesperson, Deputy Justice Minister Filimao Suaze, dismissed the criticism, saying that the government had made its position perfectly clear in a Saturday statement from Interior Minister Pascoal Ronda.

Speaking in Maputo, after a meeting with the Ombudsman, Isaque Chande, Nyusi demanded that the relevant institutions must rapidly clear up the crime and bring the culprits to justice.

He declared that nobody has the right to take the life of another citizen, no matter what the reason, and expressed his solidarity with the bereaved families.

As for the strikes and demonstrations called by Mondlane, Nyusi said they were illegal. “Mozambicans have the right to demonstrate and to freedom of expression”, he said, “but this must be done in observance of the law”.

Faced with the current political tension, Nyusi urged all citizens to remain calm, particularly because there is still no final result from the general elections of 9 October.

The National Elections Commission (CNE) is likely to announce results on Thursday (compiled from the “intermediate results” declared by the district and city commissions), but the results must then be validated by the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.

Nyusi said he was receiving phone calls “from friends and businesses”, asking if there will be further demonstrations on Thursday and Friday. Mondlane has called for further “general strikes” on those days, but the government has warned that such strikes will be illegal.

Mondlane wanted the strike to cover every district, in order to overwhelm the police. He did not believe the police have enough armoured vehicles to cover all districts and all urban neighbourhoods.

Meanwhile, the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) claims that it has been collecting evidence at the crime scene on Joaquim Chissano Avenue in central Maputo, where Dias and Guambe were murdered.

According to SERNIC spokesperson, Hilário Lole, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, ‘those individuals who were at the scene of the crime and those who had contact with Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe before the crime are being interviewed.”

He denied that there was poor management of the crime scene, or that individuals not connected with the investigation had taken away trace evidence.

He claimed that all materials that were in the vehicle and around the crime scene were collected by SERNIC.
(AIM)
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