The Maputo City Court on Tuesday sentenced former Interior Minster Almerino Manhenje to two years imprisonment for violations of budgetary legality and abuse of his position.Judge Octavio Tchuma found Manhenje guilty of three counts of violating budgetary legality, one of abuse of his position, and two of paying undue remunerations. The offences dated to 2004, when Manhenje was one of the most powerful men in the country.His two co-accused, Rosario Fidelis and Alvaro de Carvalho, former director and deputy director of the financial department of the Interior Ministry, were also sentenced to two years.The court found it proved that Manhenje had ordered the payment of 91.4 million old meticais (about 3,000 US dollars) to acquire fixed and mobile telephones for senior Interior Ministry staff, without any coverage for this expenditure in the budget.He had also ordered the payment of a payment of a phone bill of 8.226 million old meticais (265 dollars) run up by his wife, which also had no budgetary coverage.The court also found that Manhenje had used Ministry funds to pay almost 1.2 billion meticais in various expenditure not covered by the Ministry’s budget. The Manhenje household had also benefitted personally from 551 million meticais worth of foodstuffs and hygiene products acquired from Ministry funds, and air tickets for his wife and niece.The crime of abuse of position refers to Manhenje’s decision to lease two ministry warehouses to UNIPOL, a company set up to produce police uniforms, and in which he had an interest.Fidelis and Carvalho were found guilty of implementing the illegal expenditure ordered by Manhenje. In short, while Manhenje was the “moral author” of the crimes, they were the “material authors”.In addition to the prison term, the court ordered the three to pay legal costs and compensation to the state of slightly more than a million new meticais (about 32,700 dollars).Manhenje received a relatively light sentence because many of the original charges brought against him by the Public Prosecutor’s Office were thrown out. Initially, Manhenje faced 49 charges – but the investigating magistrate dropped 48 of them.The prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court, which reinstated some of the charges. But the Supreme Court rejected the charge of diverting state funds (which could have carried a sentence of 20 years imprisonment) on the grounds that Ministers do not normally have funds from the state budget under their direct control. This is a gaping loophole in the Mozambican legislation. Because Ministers do not sign the cheques, it is assumed that it is impossible for them to steal the money. Thus only lower ranking officials are likely to face charges of diverting state funds.The trial, held in December, was notable for Manhenje’s refusal to answer questions from the court on grounds of “national security”.Asked by Tchuma how he could authorise communications costs for people who were not even employed by the Interior Ministry, and how such expenditure could possibly be reconciled with the Ministry budget, Manhenje claimed “there are certain missions that because of their sensitivity cannot be revealed. If we are sitting here today, it’s because many people are doing their best for national security”.Manhenje’s lawyer, Lourenco Malia, immediately announced that he will appeal against the sentence. Given the huge backlog of appeals in the Supreme Court, it will thus be many months, if not years, before Manhenje, Fidelis and Carvalho have to find the million meticais to pay the compensation.The appeal also suspends the jail term. But in any case, none of them are likely to spend any more time in jail. They were held for 16 months in preventive detention before the Supreme Court ordered their provisional release. That time must be deducted from the sentence. Since it is normal practice that prisoners who have shown good behaviour are released on parole after completing half their sentence, it is thought unlikely that they will return to prison.
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