The Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) today filed a criminal complaint against an agent of the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR) who yesterday assaulted a citizen on Eduardo Mondlane Avenue in Maputo city, while Daniel Chapo was being inaugurated as the 5th President of the Republic.

Yesterday, the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) blocked the access roads to Independence Square, where the investiture ceremony was taking place. People who wanted to get to the venue were prevented from crossing the roadblocks. At some points the population protested, without violence.

On Avenida Eduardo Mondlane, a citizen was assaulted by two UIR agents. One slapped the woman and the other hit her with a whip/cassette. In a video circulating on social media, at least three officers can be seen in the same scene. The woman, defenceless, did not react to the attacks.

"Because of the actions of the two UIR agents, the CDD has decided to file a criminal complaint against this agent, who has been well identified [the one who slapped the woman] so that he can be held responsible," said CDD activist André Mulungo as he left the Attorney General's Office, where he filed the criminal complaint.

He said that in the actions of the UIR agents, two crimes were identified, one of bodily harm and the other of physical coercion with intent to revile.

Mulungo goes even further by saying that the physical coercion was in fact aimed at "sending a message to all the people who were around, that any movement can be responded to in the same dimension and proportion that the citizen who is the cause of this criminal complaint was raped".