Maputo, Mozambique — The Mozambican parliament on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill establishing customs tribunals on its first reading.

Introducing the bill, Finance Minister Luisa Diogo explained that new legislation was needed, because up until now customs offences were dealt with under obsolete colonial laws.

Diogo said the 1944 legislation "was typically inquisitional and envisaged the supremacy of the public administration over the citizen. When a citizen was accused, it was up to him to prove his innocence".

Matters had improved somewhat since then, since the Mozambican constitution of 1990 establishes the principle that accused persons are innocent until proven guilty.

The major problem that remained was that the customs courts were not separate from the customs administration, and the risk was that the customs service could be accused of being both prosecutor and judge.

Diogo said businessmen and taxpayers wanted "guarantees of independence and impartiality, and it is becoming intolerable for the judge to be confused with the prosecutor".

The new legislation separates the customs tribunal from the customs administration. Each tribunal will consist of three members, chaired by a professional judge.

These judges may be recruited from senior customs staff with law degrees, and from provincial level magistrates with at least five years experience.

Each of the presiding judges of the customs tribunals should be appointed by the regulatory body for the judiciary, the Supreme Council of the Judicial Magistrature.

The other two members of each of the new tribunals will be appointed by the Administrative Tribunal, the body that oversees the legality of public expenditure, and shall be chosen from among senior customs officials with law degrees and "recognised command of customs legislation and procedures".

In principle, there should be one customs tribunal in each province. But given the shortage of duly qualified people to staff them, the tribunals will be set up on a regional basis, with each tribunal covering more than one province.

Deputies from the ruling Frelimo party and from the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition praised the government bill - although several Renamo deputies expressed scepticism as to whether it would ever be implemented.