Africa-Press – Mozambique. The leader of CAD, the first political force that attempted to support Venâncio Mondlane’s candidacy, announced on Tuesday that he would go to the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office on 10 June to clarify his alleged involvement in “attempted coups”.
“There is a plan at this moment to come to the country to prove my innocence, that I am not involved in any coup, I have never been in the military, I do not know how to handle a weapon and as such, I plan to arrive at the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) on 10 June, where I will surrender to the justice system so that they can tell me what my crime is,” said the president of the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD), Manecas Daniel, at an online press conference.
The CAD leader has been “unaccounted for” since the arrest on 23 April of Justino Mondlane, a member of the coalition accused of “conspiracy against state security”.
In the document, signed by a judge from the criminal investigation section of the Maputo City Court, the Mozambican authorities consider that Justino Mondlane was linked to a group that “conspired to commit crimes against the state and violently alter the rule of law.”
Justino Mondlane’s arrest warrant stated that there is “evidence of a group of people who, through violence, are attempting to destroy, alter or subvert the constitutionally established rule of law”.
Following this, Manecas Daniel is said to have gone into hiding because he believed his name was on the list of those accused by the Mozambican justice system of “conspiring against state security”.
“On 10 June, I will be able to go to the Attorney General’s Office (…) to see where this Manecas-orchestrated plan is, or who is involved, so that it can be made public and the people know where I have been training the men, who they are, how many weapons I have, who the people are, because I assume that militarised people are carrying out the coup, and Manecas has never been in the military,” the politician said, in statements to journalists.
CAD was a coalition that tried to support Mozambican politician Venâncio Mondlane’s candidacy in the past, but the political group’s candidacy was rejected due to alleged irregularities. Mondlane subsequently signed a “political agreement” with the Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), a commitment annulled months after the elections due to differences between the parties.
In March, the Maputo City Court also ordered the preventive detention of Venâncio Mondlane’s finance manager, Glória Monteiro Nobre Chire, a 59-year-old accountant.
According to data from the attorney general’s office, the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office has filed 742 criminal cases, 31 of which involve police officers linked to the demonstrations that have affected Mozambique over the past five months.
The cases seek to hold the perpetrators criminally responsible. According to the annual report of the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office, 385 cases have been closed, 356 of which resulted in indictments, 29 were dismissed due to insufficient evidence, and 357 are still under investigation.
Former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who does not recognise the results of the 9 October general elections that gave victory to Daniel Chapo, who was sworn in in January as Mozambique’s fifth president, has been calling for protests since 21 October, which in five months have left nearly 400 people dead in clashes with the police, according to data from civil society organisations.
Mozambique’s government has confirmed at least 80 deaths, as well as the destruction of 1,677 commercial establishments, 177 schools and 23 health facilities during the demonstrations.
However, on 23 March, Venâncio Mondlane and Daniel Chapo met for the first time, and they committed to ending the violence in the country.
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