Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) on Friday protested at what it regarded as excessively long interrogations of some of the accused in the current trial of 19 people charged with offences in connection with the scandal of the “hidden debts”.
At the opening of the Friday morning session of the trial, the OAM, which is assisting the Public Prosecutor’s Office, mentioned specifically the nine hours taken on Thursday to question Angela Leao, the wife of the former head of the Security and Intelligence Service (SISE), Gregorio Leao.
OAM spokesperson Filipe Sitoe said this might be regarded as a violation of human rights, as degrading treatment or even as psychological torture, with the result that the outcome of the trial might not be regarded as fair.
Neither judge Efigenio Baptista nor prosecutor Sheila Marrengula accepted this criticism. Baptista denied that any rights were violated merely because a defendant sat in a courtroom for over nine hours – particularly when these nine hours were not uninterrupted but included intervals.
Baptista said the trial could only be considered unfair, if the defendants had no right to defend themselves – which is not the case with this trial, where each defendant is represented by at least one lawyer.
The question of how long the court should sit every day had been discussed earlier in the trial, he pointed out, and the answer was – as long as necessary, On Thursday the court had adjourned at 22.30, and on one occasion it had sat until after midnight.
“If we have to sit until 22.00, 23.00 or into the small hours of the morning, we will do so”, said Baptista. “The law does not forbid this”.
The alternative would be to declare that the day’s proceedings must end by, for example, 18.00. That would risk prolonging the trial into January 2022, or beyond. As it is, the trial is scheduled to last until early December, making it the longest trial in Mozambican history.
“The trial is continual, as provided for under the Penal Procedural Code”, said Baptista. “The court is not going to change its mind, even if you ask a thousand times”.
At no time during the Thursday session did Leao herself ask the court to adjourn. In the courtroom, which is a large tent on the grounds of the Maputo top security prison, the defendants sit on cushioned chairs, which are certainly much more comfortable than the bare wooden benches found in most Mozambican courts.
Also on Friday, Judge Baptista came under attack from a different quarter, when a parliamentary deputy of the main opposition party, Renamo, Alfredo Magumisse, accused him of being a member of the ruling Frelimo party.
Speaking in a Friday morning chat show on the private television station, TV Sucesso, Magumisse said the trial is “political” and that both Baptista and Marrengula are Frelimo members.
How did he know this? “Because all State employees are obliged to join Frelimo”, he claimed. But if this were true, why then does Renamo repeatedly protest that it has members inside the public administration who are supposedly discriminated against?
