20100523
ALL AFRICA

Maputo — A journalist appeared before a court in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula on Thursday, accused of libeling parliamentarian Lucia Afate, who is also the Nampula political delegate of the country's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo.

The journalist, Jose Vasco da Gama, had written an article in the weekly paper "Magazine Independente" (MI) on 25 May 2009, claiming that Afate had married Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama at a Moslem ceremony in the Nampula district of Mossuril.

Both Afate and Dhlakama denied the story, and Afate is now demanding damages from Vasco da Gama of a million meticais (almost 30,000 US dollars).

Vasco da Gama's sources for his story seemed impeccable - they included Afate's sister and her cousin. But in court, according to a report in the daily paper "O Pais", Afate's sister changed her line, and denied that she has ever confirmed the marriage. The cousin, although called as a witness, did not appear.

Absurdly, the Nampula judge held the trial behind closed doors, despite the fact that the 2007 law on court organisation states that all trials are public "except when the law or the court determines that they be held without publicity, to safeguard the dignity of persons and public order, or when other powerful reasons occur".

This is lamentably vague, but it does not constitute carte blanche to throw the public out of libel trials. The reference to "dignity of persons" is generally regarded as referring to sexual offences, where the identity of the victim may need to be protected. It is hard to see what threat to public order or "other powerful reaons" are posed by a case involving a journalist on a small circulation weekly.

Doubtless when the court slammed the door in the face of the public, it was using the Penal Procedural Code, which does indeed allow libel cases to be held behind closed doors. But this code is not a Mozambican document at all - it is the Portuguese code of 1926, passed after the military coup that installed half a century of fascist dictatorship.

Much of this Code has been tacitly revoked by subsequent legislation. Mozambican jurists have been working on a new Penal Procedural code for several years, but a final version has yet to see the light of day. Meanwhile there are still judges who happily use ageing colonial-fascist documents, rather than the 2007 law on court organisation. A reasonable interpretation of the 2007 law is that there is nothing special about libel cases.

One striking oddity about the Vasco da Gama case is that, although the 1991 press law states that the reporter and the newspaper he works for are both responsible for libelous material, Afate did not issue a writ against MI. The paper's director, Salomao Moyana, told AIM that he received no notification of the charges against Vasco da Gama, or of the trial date. Thus no representative of the paper stood alongside Vasco da Gama in the dock.

Since the paper was not charged, and was not represented at the trial, it cannot be ordered to pay any damages to Afate.

Absurdly, the Nampula public prosecutor's office is calling for further charges against Vasco da Gama. It wants him charged with crimes against state security. The justification for this is that the 1991 state security law makes libeling high ranking state figures a security offence. Dhlakama is a member of the Council of State (an advisory body to President Armando Guebuza) and Afate is a member of parliament, so the eager Nampula prosecutor argued that the security law applies in this case.

Did Dhlakama and Afate really marry? One thing is certain - Dhlakama has been living in Nampula for the past year, and has been seen in Afate's company. Media stories have appeared claiming that Dhlakama's wife Rosalia has been abandoned, and that she is no longer receiving money from Dhlakama.

Dhlakama's love life has become the subject of public mockery by members of the ruling Frelimo Party, and the plight of Rosalia was repeatedly mentioned by Frelimo deputies in debates last week in the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.