The DECIDE Platform has issued a warning to the government and the parties that signed the Political Commitment for Inclusive National Dialogue, demanding an immediate review of the pardon clause for detainees in the 2024 and early 2025 post-election demonstrations.

According to the organization, the current pardon model is "selective, unconstitutional and incompatible with the principles of reconciliation and democratic justice".

Data provided by the Platform indicates that during the post-election demonstrations that marked 2024 and the beginning of 2025 in Mozambique, around 7,200 citizens were arrested.

However, of this number, only 4,300 have been released, while approximately 3,000 remain imprisoned, many of them without consistent evidence, without flagrante delicto and under strong indications of arbitrary detention.

What happens is that Clause Six of the political agreement, signed on March 5, 2025 and subsequently ratified by Parliament and promulgated by the President of the Republic, provides for the granting of pardons to convicts, paragraph 2 of which restricts the benefit to "certain citizens".

However, according to this civil society organization, the partial pardon requires careful review, as it could seriously violate Article 35 of the Constitution of the Republic, which enshrines the Principle of Equality, guaranteeing that all citizens are equal before the law, without discrimination of any kind.

"Pardoning only a few implies unequal treatment between people who have been detained in the same circumstances, undermining the foundations of the rule of law," the organization denounces.

The platform also says that arbitrary arrests continue to take place, especially in the provinces of Maputo and Nampula, even after the signing of the political compromise. "This scenario highlights the ineffectiveness of a partial pardon and the urgency of putting an end to repression as a response to popular protest," it warns.

For this organization, true reconciliation can only be built with justice, transparency and inclusion. "Measures that respect the dignity of all citizens strengthen the construction of lasting peace in Mozambique," concludes the DECIDE Platform.