Maputo, 10 Jan (AIM) – The immigration services at Maputo International Airport on Thursday seized the passport of former presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane.
According to Mondlane’s legal adviser, Dinis Tivane, the explanation given was that the computerised immigration system no longer recognises Mondlane’s passport, because he has lost his status as a parliamentary deputy.
In a post on Facebook, Tivane said that, although Mondlane is no longer a member of parliament, he is the runner-up in the 9 October presidential election.
That will automatically make Mondlane a member of the Council of State, a body that advises the President of the Republic. With that status, he must be issued with a diplomatic passport.
“Clearly they want to intimidate him”, wrote Tivane. It was as if they were threatening to hold him in Mozambique, after his two month stay abroad.
“This low spectacle could have been avoided”, he said. “The process we are about to unleash to recover the passport will only reveal more dirt”.
He promised that Mondlane’s legal team would put pressure on the immigration services “until we discover who gave this illegal order”, which Tivane regarded as “another example of a political party which thinks it’s a state”.
(AIM)
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