The body of young Anita Maúngue was exhumed yesterday for forensic examinations and to determine the material truth, ordered the Maputo Provincial Court, according to the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD).

"The decision comes in the midst of a process already full of evidence pointing to the guilt of the defendant, whose material responsibility for the crime is strongly supported by testimony and evidence," reads the CDD's bulletin on human rights.

The young woman (35) was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, identified as Helton Rafael (35), an agent of the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), on March 9, 2024, in the district of Magude, Maputo province.

According to the CDD, despite the fact that there are lines revealed by witnesses that point to Helton Rafael's authorship of the crime, "the judge insists on carrying out the autopsy, ignoring the evidence already produced".

The CDD states that the judge is suspicious of the credibility of the evidence, "even going so far as to consider acquitting him".

For the NGO, "the insistence on exhumation, although it may provide a technical reinforcement to the process, cannot serve as a pretext for disregarding the overwhelming evidence that already exists which, analyzed together and systematically, points unequivocally to the involvement of the accused."

The continuation of the trial of the case was scheduled for today, and until the publication of the CDD's Bulletin on Human Rights on February 24, the defendant was considered a 'fugitive'. He was among the group of citizens who escaped from the Central Prison on December 25, 2024.

"On December 25, 2024, a total of 1534 inmates escaped from Maputo Central Prison and the Maximum Security Penitentiary Establishment, aka BO, making it the largest prison escape in terms of numbers in the country's history. It was in this context that SERNIC agent Helton Rafael was released from the Central Prison, where he was being held in pre-trial detention by decision of the court, which found enough evidence to link him to the murder of Anita Maúngue," we read.