The elected mayor of Quelimane, in Zambezia province, criticizes the silence of Renamo, the largest opposition party in Mozambique, in the case of the house arrest of the mayor of Nacala-Porto, Raúl Novinte, accused of inciting violence.

Manuel de Araújo expressed his disappointment last Saturday in Nacala-Porto, where he went to express his support and solidarity with his party colleague who has been barred by the Nacala-Porto District Judicial Court from carrying out any administrative or political activities for a period of 30 days.

Novinte has also been made a defendant in eight cases to answer to various crimes against him.

The defendants are charged with disturbing public order and tranquillity and continuing criminal activity.

"I criticize the leadership of my party for its silence all this time. I think the party should have taken a clear and bolder stance on this case of injustice against an elected mayor, who today a district attorney decided to suspend from exercising his functions. Power resides in the people and it was the people who elected Novinte, so a prosecutor does not have the legitimacy to suspend his mandate," said Araújo, quoted by AIM.

According to the source, the house arrest or co-action measure that the District Court decided to apply to the still-mayor of Nacala is an attack on the rule of democratic law and an abuse of power, because the situations in which an elected mayor loses his mandate or is suspended are described in the law and, in this case, the decision did not comply with the law.

Faced with the alleged breach, which it considers serious, the judiciary should have already taken action, as it is an intrusion by the judiciary into the executive branch.

"If it had been a Frelimo mayor who had been suspended, they could have taken action. The circumstances in which an elected mayor loses or is suspended from exercising his functions are defined by law and should not be the way the Nacala District Attorney's Office, in collusion with the local court, did it," he said.

Araújo says that he has read the indictment and can't find any basis or reason for the crimes charged against the defendant. "Novinte only asked the people of Nacala to defend Nacala, just as the people of Quelimane defended Quelimane, and I don't see any crime there," he said.

For the source, it's incomprehensible how the courts can sentence Novinte to house arrest because he only asked the people to defend themselves in the face of vote-stealing and, paradoxically, the alleged vote-stealers are free.

He also said that some of the frontrunners had gone further, threatening to create or transform some municipalities into autonomous regions if the victory for Renamo was not recognized, in a clear allusion to the Renamo frontrunners in Matola and Maputo city, António Muchanga and Venâncio Mondlane, who have publicly declared that Frelimo should not govern in these regions, and that they could transform them into autonomous regions.

For Araújo, these statements are more serious than those made by Novinte, because they call into question sovereignty and national and territorial unity, which makes it clear that justice was already on the Nacala mayor's trail.

He left messages of comfort for the defendant, making him understand that the fight for democracy has a price and the price is what Novinte is paying.

To the same extent, 10 other Renamo members are covered, including municipal officials and councillors linked to the party and Raúl Novinte's closest advisor, Arlindo Sisal.

These procedural measures are aimed at restricting the defendants' freedom and their contactability, as a way of preventing repetition of criminal activity and the production of certain procedural effects.