Maputo — The critical situation in Mozambican prisons has not improved over the past year, and in some aspects, such as overcrowding, it has worsened, Attorney-General Joaquim Madeira told the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday.

He recalled that when he gave his annual report on the justice system in March 2002, he had spoken of overcrowding, poor hygiene and diet, deteriorating prison buildings, and a large number of escapes. This year, he could report no improvement, and the physical deterioration of some prisons was now such as to put the lives of inmates at risk.

Madeira said that, when he had visited several prisons in late 2002, he had found "not just overcrowding, lack of hygiene and the prevalence of disease, but a real lack of control". By this he meant that no-one was checking on how long detainees were held before they were brought to trial.

He had found prisoners who had been charged, but were still awaiting trial a year or more later. Perhaps even worse were the cases of prisoners who had been detained and eight months or more later had not even been charged. The prosecutors with the case papers had not decided whether they were going to press charges or drop the cases. There were prisoners who had appealed against a guilty verdict, and a year later the appeal had not been heard. Worst of all were cases where prisoners spent longer in jail than the courts had ordered: they served their sentences, but nobody was controlling the dates on which they should be released.

Judges and attorneys, said Madeira, "do not have the habit of visiting the prisons regularly to check on the situation of the inmates, and then acting in accordance with priorities dictated by the real situation.

He announced that his office and the Supreme Court have agreed to carry out a joint survey of the prison situation of detainees, with the intention of launching a speedy campaign of trials, to reduce the backlog.

Madeira criticised the greed of Mozambican lawyers who refuse to defend poor clients. This meant that accused people without the money to hire a lawyer had to rely on "official defenders".

Madeira clearly believed that these "official" defenders, usually lowly court officials, were worthless. He noted that often these people, instead of mounting a serious defence, just asked the judge to "see that justice is done".

He repeated his claims of 2002 that, far from collaborating in the administration of justice, there were lawyers who operated so as to obstruct justice. Serious accusations had been made against some of the defence lawyers in the Carlos Cardoso murder trial, and the Bar Association had begun an inquiry. Madeira hoped that this was the start of a new stage "that will contribute to the dignity of lawyers".

As for the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), Madeira could report some progress in removing investigating functions from the control of the Ministry of the Interior, and placing them under the Public Prosecutor's Office.

30 people with university degrees have already been trained as the nucleus of what will be called the Judicial Police, and a further 100 candidates, with the minimum educational qualification of 12th grade, are being recruited. There would also be "profound training in ethics". Thus rather then bodily transfer all existing PIC agents to the Judicial Police, Madeira prefers to build a new unit from scratch, marking a clean break with the past.