Maputo, 19 Jul (AIM) – Members of the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR – the Mozambican riot police) on Saturday night shot dead an unarmed citizen inside a bar in Xinavane region, in Manhiça district, about 100 kilometres north of Maputo.
A video that went viral on social media shows a group of police officers surrounding a bar. After some of them entered the establishment, gunshots are heard, causing tension among those present. The video then shows the exact moment an officer executes the individual in cold blood, firing multiple shots.
According to reports, reacting to the horrific video, the victim was one the most wanted criminals by the country’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC).
The authorities have not commented on the case, but several public figures have condemned the act. According to Fatima Mimbire, a prominent human rights activist, given the size of the contingent involved in the operation, the victim could simply have been subdued and taken to police station, whether he posed a danger to those present or was a dangerous person under investigation.
“Everything indicates that the State no longer exists. It does not matter if the man was a violent criminal. There was no indication there of any need for that type of intervention. And look at the risk to which they exposed everyone at the scene. It was unnecessary. Honestly, I cannot comprehend that act”, she wrote on her Facebook page.
According to Mimbire, these acts of disproportionate use of force never lead to accountability.
“They will concoct a theory, and that will be the end of it. It does not matter if he was a criminal. There are ways to deal with criminals, even dangerous ones. It is not by chance that Mozambique abolished the death penalty. The summary execution of an unarmed person who posed no threat is a crime and must be punished in an exemplary manner”, reads her post.
Venancio Mondlane, leader of the National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique (Anamola), the country’s de facto main opposition party, described the act as “inadmissible summary execution.”
“Mozambique does not have the death penalty. No Estate agent has the right to kill someone who has already been neutralized, even if they are a known criminal. We demand an urgent, independent, and transparent investigation, including the identification, detention, and exemplary prosecution of all those responsible”, he wrote on his social media.
Am/
