POLICE MUST OBEY CONSTITUTION - JUSTICE MINISTER

Mozambique’s Minister of Justice, Benvinda Levi, has insisted that the police must obey the country’s constitution.Her remarks follow police defiance of the Constitution last month in the northern port city of Nacala.The Nacala district police commander, Adriano Muianga, and four of his subordinates, were detained in late March when 62 firearms were found stored in the Nacala Police Command. They were to be used by security guards on ships moored in Nacala port, for protection against Somali pirate gangs operating in the Indian Ocean.In April, a magistrate ordered the release of the men – they could await any eventual trial in freedom. But the police promptly re-arrested the five, and took them to cells in Nampula city on the express orders of the General Command. The police excuse for this was that this time they were detaining the men, not for criminal proceedings but for disciplinary action under the police internal regulations of 1987.Lawyers for the detained police officers then submitted a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Muianga and one of the other four. Once again they were called into court, and once again a magistrate decided to grant the men provisional freedom. Intervention by the Attorney-General’s Office ensured that this time the court ruling was respect.But on Monday, the General Commander of the Police, Jorge Khalau, insisted that the police had acted correctly. “We know the laws. We don’t obey any judge. We take our own internal measures”, he said.Interviewed by the independent television station STV, Benvinda Levi, pointed out that obedience to court rulings is a principle of the Mozambican constitution.“The Constitution of the Republic is the mother of all laws in the country, and we must all obey it”, she declared. “The Constitution is clear in this respect – it is obligatory to carry out court decisions”.Hermenegildo Gamito, the chairperson of the Constitutional Council, Mozambique’s highest body on matters of constitutional law, declined to comment on Khalau’s statements. He told STV that the Council “is a body which only makes rulings when it is called upon to do so. We will have an appropriate moment to give our position, if we are asked to do so”.The Council will have such an opportunity. For one of the bodies that may request rulings from the Council is the Attorney-General’s Office, and on Thursday Attorney-General Augusto Paulino announced that he has requested the council to rule on whether the police internal regulations, the document Khalau invoked to defy a court order, violates the constitution.