The Judicial Court of Quelimane acquitted Manuel Araújo, the mayor of that municipality, of the crime of defamation and slander that he was accused of by the President of the District Electoral Commission (CDE).
The president of the Quelimane district committee, Zacarias Muheia, accused Manuel de Araújo of defaming him on social media after the October 11 election results.
According to a publication in the newspaper "The Country", the message, allegedly uttered by Manuel de Araújo and circulating on social networks, states that: "The District Director of STAE wanted Alive or..., wanted alive or...". For this message, Zacarias Muheia demanded compensation of around 250,000 meticais.
However, today, when he read out the sentence, the judge said that the complaint against Manuel de Araújo had not been proven.
"There are no outstanding aggravating circumstances against the defendants. In favor of the defendants, there are the following mitigating circumstances, which is previous good behavior. For the above reasons, the first section of the Quelimane City Judicial Court decides to dismiss the charges as unfounded and unproven. Consequently, it absorbs the co-defendants Manuel António Alculete Lopes de Araújo and Baptista Lemos Máquina, in strict obedience to the dubio pro-defendant principle, sending them in peace and free," said judge Cripelho Cândido, adding that, at the time of the trial, De Araújo proved that he was not the one who wrote and published the message, that he does not know the president of the district committee and that he was not in Quelimane at the time of the events.
"The co-defendant Manuel de Araújo also says that he was not the one who produced the image and the words on it. He also added that he has no telephone contact for the offended party, Zacarias Inácio Muheia, so that he could send him the image," he said.
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