Lawyer Custódio Duma has demanded that the Attorney General's Office (PGR) open a serious and independent investigation into Wednesday's events and all the other reports of recent police violence.

In a letter submitted to the PGR yesterday, the lawyer and first President of the National Human Rights Commission calls for the perpetrators of this violence to be identified, ensuring that the guilty parties are held accountable.

For Custódio Duma, the brutal, violent and cowardly running over of a demonstrator on Wednesday (28), in the middle of Avenida Eduardo Mondlane, by an armored vehicle of the Armed Defense Forces of Mozambique (FADM), was the peak of a growing wave of violence perpetrated by agents of the Defense and Security Forces (FDS).

This episode, according to the lawyer, "is not an isolated fact, but the culmination of a series of human rights abuses and violations that have alarmed Mozambican society and the international community". "Cases of police violence, including targeted shootings, arbitrary arrests and acts of disproportionate repression, have been widely reported on social networks, documented by national and international media, and denounced by civil society and human rights organizations," he pointed out, noting that the pattern of "brutality and impunity" is creating an "atmosphere of fear" and "discredit" in the institutions responsible for protecting citizens.

In addition, Custódio Duma challenges the PGR to act firmly and transparently in order to restore the population's confidence "and send a clear message that Mozambique will not tolerate acts of violence and repression, regardless of who commits them".