Africa-Press – Angola. Three national citizens, including a senior officer from the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC), allegedly involved in the death of Ema Pereira João Rolando, a nine-year-old child, in June 2020, in the village of Nzeto, began to be tried on Monday by the Mbanza Kongo District Court, Zaire province.
These are Afonso Mbiyavanga, former municipal director of the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) in Nzeto, Kavungo Nzuzi Júnior, former director of the Municipal Hospital and Conceição João Pereira, mother of the victim, allegedly involved in the death, by hanging, of the girl Emma Rolando.
At the time of the events, June 19, 2020, the body of Ema Pereira João Rolando was found hanging from a two-and-a-half-meter-high pine cone fruit tree, inside a backyard where she lived with her mother, in Kibonga neighborhood, on the outskirts of the fishing village of Nzeto.
According to reports, the girl Ema was killed by asphyxiation by her own mother, Conceição João Pereira, at the behest of her boyfriend Afonso Mbiyavanga, former municipal director of the SIC, because the girl was allegedly interfering in the love relationship he had. with the victim’s mother.
The child’s body was then hung from a tree and later removed, in the dead of night, to the morgue of the Nzeto Municipal Hospital, where, it is alleged, sperm had been introduced into the girl’s vaginal canal to disguise that the child was the target of sexual abuse before being killed.
On the first day of the trial, which is being led by the judge in the case Paulo Lisboa, only two of the 30 declarants were heard, as they reside in the town of Nzeto, which is 230 kilometers from the city of Mbanza Kongo, capital of the province of Zaire.
Afonso Mbiyavanga, aged 38, is accused of abuse of power, malfeasance, personal favoritism and obstruction of justice, while Kavungo Nzuzi Júnior, aged 43, former director of the Nzeto Municipal Hospital, is charged with the crime of obstruction of justice and manipulation of criminal evidence.
The victim’s mother, Conceição João Pereira, 35 years old, is responsible for the crime in this trial dubbed “Ema Case”.
At the time, the representative of the Public Ministry, Irani Francisco Clemente, questioned the way in which the child was found hanging from the tree, for whom a nine-year-old girl would hardly be able to tie the knots on the rope around her neck.
“The type of tree itself would not support the weight of the child while it was alive, as it had a very fragile trunk”, he highlighted.
The prosecution lawyer, Bernardo João, considered the first day of the hearing of this case, which affected the Ambriz population (natives of Nzeto), to be useful, as it was possible to gather essential questions from the defendants.
The accused are on parole, after having served nine months in pre-trial detention at the Nkiende penitentiary unit, which is 30 kilometers from the city of Mbanza Kongo.
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