Africa-Press – Mozambique. At least half of the inmates who escaped from Mozambican prisons during the post-election protests have been recaptured, the justice minister said on Monday.
“With the various security forces in the country, we have managed to recover about half of those who escaped, and yesterday [Sunday] we even picked up some who returned to prison,” said the Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Mateus Saize, on the sidelines of the launch of an awareness campaign on albinism in Maputo.
Around 2,000 inmates escaped from prisons in various parts of the country last year, in actions that, according to the police and Mozambican authorities, were the responsibility of protesters.
The most serious case of prisoner escape occurred in Maputo on 25 December, when 1,534 prisoners fled after riots at the Special Maximum Security Prison and the Provincial Prison of Maputo, located about 14 kilometres from the centre of the Mozambican capital.
According to data from the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), at least 35 inmates lost their lives during the escape from the Special Maximum Security Prison and the Provincial Prison of Maputo.
The justice minister also stated that the government will proceed with a plan to rehabilitate justice institutions that were vandalised and destroyed during the post-election protests.
“There is an action plan for the rehabilitation of infrastructure. As you know, the construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure for the judiciary is the responsibility of the government of Mozambique. It is devising a plan to rehabilitate some of it. Some work has already begun,” said Mateus Saize, noting that a “huge number” of infrastructure facilities were vandalised during the protests.
“In addition to rehabilitating those that are not in a condition to start activities in these establishments, (…) the start of work [on others] is being scheduled,” he added.
At least 18 courts were vandalised during post-election protests, Supreme Court President Adelino Muchanga said in January, warning of the loss of court cases.
“We will have to reconstruct the destroyed cases and to do so we are counting on the cooperation of all those involved, namely the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic), the National Prison Service (Sernap), the parties to the proceedings, the representatives, victims, witnesses, declarants and experts,” said supreme court President Adelino Muchanga.
Mozambique experienced almost five months of social tension, with demonstrations, initially in protest against the election results of 9 October, called by former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, resulting in the death of 400 people and the destruction of property.
The government confirmed at least 80 deaths, in addition to the destruction of 1,677 commercial establishments, 177 schools and 23 health facilities during the demonstrations.
On 5 March, Mozambican parties with seats in parliament, as well as in municipal and provincial assemblies, signed a political commitment with the President of Mozambique, aimed at state reforms, which was subsequently passed into law by the Mozambican parliament.
On 23 March, Mondlane and Chapo met for the first time, and a commitment was also made to end post-election violence in the country. They met again on 21 May with an agenda to pacify the country.
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