5 July 2009
Maputo — Mozambique's Attorney-General, Augusto Paulino, on Friday denounced what he described as "shocking attitudes" of some prosecutors working in the provinces.
Without naming any names, he accused these prosecutors of acting against supposed offenders based on nothing more than cuttings from the press.
Speaking at the end of a training course for judges and prosecutors at the Legal Training Centre in the southern city of Matola, Paulino said that these attorneys simply took stories from the press and appended summonses, obliging citizens to come and answer questions at the provincial attorney's offices.
"These prosecutors simply took news items and used them to summons people as suspects", Paulino exclaimed. He described this as "irresponsible". Relying on articles published in the press meant that these prosecutors were not carrying out any serious investigation of their own at all.
The procedures they were following were so irregular "that they don't allow us to determine what kind of treatment should be given to each case, what kind of questions should be asked. Questions are not the same for all cases. You don't ask the same questions for cases of murder, rape and money-laundering".
To improve this situation, the only answer was more training for people in key positions in the legal system. The only way to beat organized crime, he stressed, was for judges and prosecutors also to be organized, which meant better training
Eight judges and 67 prosecutors attended the course. They included all the provincial chief attorneys, many district attorneys, and prosecutors working at the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC).
The course dealt with Mozambican legislation against corruption and similar crimes, and criminal investigation techniques, particularly when dealing with economic and financial crimes.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
