MANHENJE CASE: SUMMING UP

Summing up on Tuesday before the Maputo City Court in the case against former Interior Minister Almerino Manhenge and two of his close associates, prosecutor Manuel Candido called for all three to be given jail sentences.He said it has been proven that Manhenje, and the former director and deputy director of the Interior Ministry’s finance department, Carlos Fidelis and Alvaro Carvalho, had abused state funds, and had done so fully aware of the illegality of their acts. Furthermore, they had never shown the slightest sign of repentance.Candido urged the court not only to send the three to prison, but also to repay all the money they had illegitimately taken from the state. Manhenje faces six charges – three charges of violating budgetary legality, two of covering up the payment of undue remunerations, and one of abusing his position. Fidelis and Carvalho also face charges of paying “undue remunerations”.In the defence summing up, Manhenje’s lawyer, Lourenco Malia, said the premise for the charges, a report from the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), referring to events in 2004, was unreliable. He said that initially, there had been talk of theft from the Ministry of 220 million meticais (about 6.4 million US dollars, at current exchange rates), but when the Supreme Court revised the charge sheet they only accused the three men of offences covering 1.2 million meticais.Malia also claimed that the Ministry accounts had been approved by the Administrative Tribunal, and later by the country’s parliament the Assembly of the Republic. It therefore made no sense to find the three guilty, and they should all be acquitted.Malia’s claim was disingenuous – the Tribunal and the parliament give opinions on the General State Accounts, in this case for 2004, and this does not involve detailed audits, ministry by ministry. Manhenje had reused to give details of the expenses he had authorised, on the grounds of “state security”. Malia, however, was somewhat more forthcoming.“By way of example”, he said, “expenses were paid for members of the riot police to travel to Cheringoma and Maringue (in the central province of Sofala) to attend to an emergency, and another sum was used to buy torches for the police stationed to guard the ballot boxes during the 2004 general elections. It cannot be said that these expenses constitute an illicit act”.On the contrary, the state ought to decorate Manhenje for “having done so much for the security of this country”, declared Malia.In his final statement, Manhenje himself declared that he had never been questioned by the Finance Ministry inspectors who came to the conclusion that there had been colossal diversion of funds from the Interior Ministry’s accounts. He said he only became aware of the accusations against him years later, when he was arrested and thrown into jail.Manhenje said he found the situation very difficult “because this is a country I have served in very sensitive institutions, and in periods that were delicate for the survival of the state”.He said that he had always taken “considered decisions in the pursuit of the highest interests of the state”. He had looked back at his past, and could not see how any of his actions could be regarded as criminal.Fidelis too claimed that all he had done was for the good of the country and the institution. He said he had never been given any opportunity to explain himself to the auditors of the IGF. “Neither the Ministry of Finance nor the Administrative Tribunal ever called on us to explain any anomaly”, he said.The presiding judge Octavio Tchuma said he would give his verdict on 22 March.