CORRUPTION AND EMBEZZLEMENT TRIALS IN 2012

Mozambican prosecutors processed 876 cases of alleged corruption, embezzlement and theft of state funds in 2013, Attorney-General Augusto Paulino told the county’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday.Giving his annual report on the state of Mozambican justice, Paulino said charges were brought in 296 cases, 138 of which have come to trial. The public prosecutor’s office declined to prosecute in 45 cases, and the remainder are still undergoing investigation.Since 2008, he added, charges have been brought in a total of 1,318 alleged cases of corruption, embezzlement and similar cases, but only 508 of these cases have come to court.Some state managers escaped criminal prosecution but have been instructed to repay money that had been improperly spent. Paulino said that in 2013, the Administrative Tribunal, the body that oversees the legality of public expenditure, fined 128 managers for “financial infractions” and ordered them to repay money that had been diverted to purposes for which it had not been budgeted. He added that the Administrative Tribunal had undertaken 450 audits and the General Inspectorate of Finance 260 audit “to assess the use or application of public resources”. “We are aware that the battle against corruption is far from being won”, said Paulino. “However, we remain convinced that, with the involvement of all state bodies, of the entire judicial machinery, and of all our people, we shall reduce the phenomenon to insignificance”.  Paulino also gave examples of some particularly horrific murders connected with superstition and black magic. In one case, in Angonia district, in the western province of Tete, five people beat a man to death on 16 March 2013, and then removed his jawbones and his genitals (body parts are sometimes used in witchcraft rituals).Four of the gang were caught and tried in October, but only one was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to the maximum prison term of 24 years. Two others were sentenced to two years, while the fourth was acquitted for lack of evidence. On 22 July, in Pebane district, Zambezia province, a witch doctor and his assistant convinced their three victims that they had the power to make them rich. For this magic to work, the three had to deliver to the swindlers everything of value they already owned, and then dig holes in which they were then buried alive.