Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Women’s Observatory, a platform for defending women’s rights in Mozambique, on Friday denounced alleged attempts to shelve a case linked to the alleged sexual exploitation of inmates in a Maputo prison reported in 2021.
“The Women’s Observatory, constituted as an assistant in the process, became aware, with alarm, of the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s intention to close the case of sexual exploitation of inmates at the Special Penitentiary Establishment for Women in Maputo (…). We urge the Attorney General, Beatriz Buchilli, and the Minister of Justice, Helena Kida, women, like us, not to abandon our hope for justice,” executive secretary of the Women’s Observatory Quitéria Guirengane told a press conference.
At issue is a 2021 enquiry carried out by the Mozambican non-governmental organisation Centro de Integridade Pública (CIP), denouncing an alleged prostitution network in which prison guards at the Special Penitentiary Establishment for Women in Maputo forced inmates to leave prison in order to engage in prostitution.
After the complaint, the Ministry of Justice created a commission of inquiry, which concluded that there was sexual abuse of inmates by prison guards and “external people”, but that the cases occurred inside the penitentiary establishment.
Although a total of 40 prison employees were facing criminal charges and the management of the establishment was replaced, the Women’s Observatory, legally constituted as an assistant in the case, claims that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is listing arguments to “refrain from doing its job”.
“The Public Prosecutor alleges that, after hearing the procedural actors, no elements have been determined, to date, that ensure the existence of evidence of the crimes being investigated,” the activist organisation has declared.
Lusa tried unsuccessfully to obtain a statement on the matter from the Attorney General of Mozambique.
In the final report of the commission created by the government to investigate the case, it was concluded that sexual abuse in prison was carried out by prison guards and “external people”, who entered the prison to attend parties held on weekends or holidays, with senior prison officials remaining complaisant.
“In other cases, agents demanded sex in exchange for food, drugs or promises of privileged treatment,” added the document presented that year.
The report also added that inmates reported several cases in which they were forced to have abortions following sexual relations with prison guards, some of which the commission went to describe as “apparently consensual”, although based on threats.
“The majority of inmates became pregnant more than once and were forced to have an abortion, using the services of nurses assigned to the penitentiary establishment,” the document reported, going on to suggest a specific legal instrument to penalise guards who become involved with inmates.
According to data released in July 2021, the Special Penitentiary Establishment for Women in Maputo then housed a total of 96 inmates, distributed across eight communal cells, with a capacity for 20 people each.
The case aroused indignation in various sectors of Mozambican society, with a criminal complaint against the management of the penitentiary establishment being submitted to the Attorney General’s Office by 17 women’s rights organisations.
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