The murder of my lawyer

My long-time friend and lawyer in Mozambique, Elvino Dias, and Paulo Guambe, who was in the passenger seat of his car at the time of the crime, were shot dead in Maputo on the evening of 19 October 2024.

Today, Adriano Nuvunga, director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), which is sponsored by several European governments and supported by German NGOs, published a live video in front of the public prosecutor's office in the capital Maputo. In it, Mr Nuvunga surprisingly stated that he obviously knows the murderers and that he had filed a complaint. In 2022, shortly before my escape from Mozambique, the director of the CDD had refused to support my lawyer in the trial against two agents of the Mozambican secret service SISE who had been trained by the STASI.

Sounds like a modern version of a thriller from the GDR era. I would be glad if it were so.

Here is the English translation of Mr Nuvunga's statement published today.

Good morning, we are here today to address two important issues.

The first issue concerns the search for justice for the barbaric and cruel murder of Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe. We came here at the end of January to file a very well-founded complaint based on clear evidence that the people who murdered Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe are the same people who murdered Anastácio Matavel in Gaza province, and that their release from prison was facilitated, organised and even logistically structured by the heads of the detention centre where these individuals are being held.

The Public Prosecutor's Office replied that it would follow up and investigate the case.

After some time, we submitted a new request to point out that evidence is being destroyed where these individuals are being held, that time is passing and the evidence we have presented is being destroyed, including the individuals who are morally, i.e. morally, involved in the case, who have already been transferred, and those who are still on duty are being threatened, etc.

The public prosecutor's office should act as quickly as possible. Since April, the public prosecutor's office has been silent. This public prosecutor's office is silent.

That is why we have come here today to ask for help so that the public prosecutor's office will take urgent action, as we have done with the evidence we have presented, to act immediately.

The people who committed this crime have been identified to a certain extent, and the whole process is clear.

We do not understand why the public prosecutor's office is silent. Why did it say it would take action and yet has done nothing to date? This gives the impression that the public prosecutor's office is facilitating the disappearance of evidence that clearly points to who committed this crime. Everything points to the public prosecutor's office being interested in impunity in this case. And why is the public prosecutor's office interested in impunity in this case?

We have the impression that this is a state crime, a political crime, and that the public prosecutor's office therefore wants to cover it up.

Reporter: So you are saying, Adriano Nuvunga, that the public prosecutor's office is covering up and thus even jeopardising this trial in a constitutional state?

I say this based on what we have already done and based on the silence of the public prosecutor's office in response to the complaint we filed, that evidence is disappearing from the detention centre where these individuals are being held, whom we had previously reported, and that the individuals are slowly being dispersed.

The silence of the public prosecutor's office, the denial of justice, the delay in the proceedings is a denial of justice, it is a denial of justice to Elvino Dias, it is a denial of justice to Paulo Guambe, it is a denial of justice to the survivors of this case, and we do not understand why the Attorney General's Office remains silent.

There is a new prosecutor who promised to act, who promised to take action against cases that have shocked society, against this type of crime, and he remains silent. And we have the impression that the Public Prosecutor's Office is not interested in pursuing this matter.

In this first case brought before the CND, the Elvino Dias case, but other cases have already been brought forward that we have been following.

Reporter: Has the public prosecutor's office already responded to some of the recently filed cases?

It has responded to several. We are providing further information on the murders that were committed during the demonstrations at that time.

In the case of Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe, the public prosecutor's office acted quickly, but only to then fall silent. The public prosecutor's office is clearly not interested in justice.