Maputo — The Gaza provincial court, sitting in the southern Mozambican city of Xai-Xai, on Thursday sentenced two police officers, who were members of the death squad that murdered civil society and election observation activist Anastacio Matavel on 7 October last year, to lengthy prison terms.
Judge Ana Liquidao sentenced the man who drove the death squad's car, Edson Silica, to 24 years imprisonment, and his colleague, Euclidio Mapulasse, to 23 years.
The court found that the commander of the Gaza unit of the GOE, Tudela Guirrugo, was the "moral author" of the crime (that is, he had ordered it) and gave him a 24 year sentence.
The court acquitted a seventh accused, Ricardo Manganhe, a teacher from the municipality of Chibuto, who had lent the getaway car to the death squad.
Menete argued that the state is responsible - the murder was a state crime, carried out by police officers, using police guns.
