Mail & Guardian reporter and AIM
The children of assassinated Mozambican editor Carlos Cardoso and a journalist of his now-defunct journal Metical have won a first minor victory against a legal onslaught from the son of President Joaquim Chissano.
The way prosecuting authorities have pursued the matter has led to questions being raised about the impartiality of the Mozambican justice system.
Nyimpini Chissano, a businessman and son of the president, last year brought criminal defamation charges against Metical, the news-sheet founded by Cardoso, and staff writer Marcelo Mosse. Cardoso, arguably Mozambique’s most prominent journalist, was assassinated in November 2000 after he wrote about a banking scandal involving well-connected businessmen.
Metical closed last December but Chissano chose to pursue his 1,8-billion metical (about R820 000) demand against Cardoso’s children, Ibo (12) and Milena (6), who inherited the journal and remain legally responsible for any libel damages.
Mosse, whom Chissano individually blames for the offending article in Metical as well as further articles in the Mail & Guardian and Portugal’s Expresso, faces a potential jail sentence under Mozambican law.
The articles dealt with allegations that Chissano was arrested or detained in South Africa. Chissano has denied the allegations. The M&Garticle introduced a drug angle.
The case against Cardoso’s children and Mosse was postponed for a fifth time by the Maputo First Urban District Court on Monday when it became clear the defence had won an injunction that an earlier appeal against alleged prosecution irregularities should first be finalised. The injunction was granted by a higher court, the Maputo City Court, last Friday.
Earlier lawyers Lucinda Cruz, for the Cardoso children, and Helder Matlaba, for Mosse, had argued with little effect that the irregularities meant Chissano’s case should be thrown out. The alleged irregularities include the following:
Chissano missed a strict deadline to institute action.
The public prosecutor failed to endorse, reject or amend Chissano’s charges as he should have done since the charges are criminal.
The accused have been irregularly charged under the law of “injuria”, rather than “difamacao”, with the result that they cannot plead the truth of the published allegations.
Further alleged irregularities include that previous court dates were set in December without sufficient notice to the parties, and in January during judicial holidays. The apparent haste in prosecuting the Metical heirs and Mosse has caused some eyebrows to be lifted, more so since there has been little progress in bringing Cardoso’s alleged assassins, originally charged 10 months ago, to trial.
Cardoso’s widow Nina Berg said earlier: “First, Milena and Ibo lose their father, murdered by a terrorist gang. Now they are called to appear as defendants in a court before their father’s assassins.”
An internationally circulated petition to the Mozambican attorney general also speaks of the apparent judicial partiality and adds: “This has become a politicised case in which the position of [Chissano] as a citizen can no longer be separated from his family connections. The result of this politicisation is a climate of fear pervading the Mozambican press.”