Mozambique’s main opposition leader Venancio Mondlane said he had been charged with five offences, including inciting and instigating terrorism, after meeting with the country’s attorney general Tuesday.Mondlane led months of violently repressed protests following disputed general elections in October last year.He claimed he is being persecuted despite an agreement with President Daniel Chapo to end violence from all sides, and in March said he was questioned for 10 hours by prosecutors without being informed of what accusation lay behind the interrogation.”I want to inform you that finally, to even our own joy, the accusation has been formalised,” Mondlane told journalists outside the attorney general’s office in the capital Maputo.The five charges include inciting and instigating terrorism, incitement to collective disobedience, and condoning and inciting crime, he said.”This means that we can go to court, which for me is the best moment because it means that we’re out of judicial secrecy,” he said, adding he was supported by “national and international lawyers”.The prosecutors’ office declined to comment on the case. Mondlane, who had been touring Europe earlier this month, had warned he might be arrested upon returning to Mozambique on Monday. He was instead met with a large police presence following his convoy through the streets of Maputo.”The public prosecutor’s office has been used as an instrument to perpetuate persecution,” he said, adding that the charges were linked to his challenging of “unequivocal electoral fraud”.”Those who want to fight this crime… are attacked, persecuted, imprisoned, killed and wounded,” he said.The October election, which several international observer missions said was tainted by irregularities, was followed by more than two months of demonstrations and blockades during which almost 400 people died, according to local civil society groups. Mondlane claims he won the poll, despite official results putting him in second place after Chapo of the Frelimo party, which has governed Mozambique since independence from Portugal in 1975.Mondlane and Chapo’s meeting in March raised hopes of a return to peace, but the opposition leader claims that he and his allies are still facing persecution.
