Maputo — Three police officers, including a district commander, are under arrest for crimes of corruption in the central Mozambican province of Manica.
The police commander in Macossa district, Jorselio Matimbe, who has been a member of the police force for 15 years, and two of his men were arrested on Tuesday. They have been transferred to cells in the Barue district command.
The main accusation against the three is that they took a bribe of 45,000 meticais (about 633 US dollars) in exchange for releasing a motorist who ran over and killed a pedestrian in Macossa.
Sources close to the case told AIM the three have been releasing alleged criminals from the police cells in exchange for cash. They are also accused of involvement in illegal logging and mining operations.
The head of public relations in the Manica Provincial Police Command, Mario Arnaca, confirmed the arrests. He said a team has been sent to Macossa to assess the degree of blame of each of the three.
“If there is proof that they are really involved in crimes of corruption, then disciplinary and criminal proceedings will be initiated against them”, he added.
He claimed that the police force will be “implacable” towards people who behave in a corrupt manner, since there is no place for such individuals in the police.
“Far-reaching work is under way, since we are purifying our ranks”, said Arnaca. “We cannot keep amongst us people whose behaviour undermines all our efforts to fight crime. We appeal to all our colleagues to act responsibly in order to avoid similar cases”.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique