Mozambique: Opposition Leader Venâncio Mondlane to be Tried for Treason

Venâncio Mondlane has been charged with treason for his role in the demonstrations November 2024-March 2025 protesting the fraudulent elections of 9 October 2024. More than 350 demonstrators were killed by police, who have not been charged. More than 1000 demonstrators are improperly still being held in jail without trial.

Mondlane says he is accused of committing the crimes of publicly condoning a crime; publicly instigating a crime; inciting collective disobedience; instigating terrorism; and inciting terrorism. He is accused of committing these crimes during the post-election protests. (Carta de Moçambique 24 July)

Because Mondlane officially came second in the presidential elections, he is automatically a member of the Council of State, with immunity. The Council lifted his immunity on 10 June at a meeting Mondlane did not attend, but this was kept secret until 25 August. But because of his membership of the Council of State, he will be tried by five members of the Supreme Court.

By law, Mozambican justice is politicised. The president and vice-president of the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo, TS) are named by President of Mozambique and the 11 judges are nominated by parties in parliament in proportion to their seats (subject to qualifications criteria), which gives Frelimo overwhelming control of he Supreme Court and the judicial system.

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Savana (4 September) gave detailed profiles of the five judges in the Venâncio Mondlane case. (Two judges are also named Mondlane, a common name in southern Mozambique.) Luís Mondlane and António Paulo Namburete are the two leading judges for the trial. Luís Mondlane earlier was named president of the Constitutional Council (CC) by President Armando Guebuza, but resigned in 2011 when he was accused of misusing $400,000 for personal expenses, and returned his previous post on the TS.

Namburete was named Attorney General by President Joaquim Chissano in 1998. Chissano dismissed Namburete and six of his deputies in 2000 after they were accused of not investigating the $14mn thefts from Banco Commercial de Moçambique (BCM). (Moçambique recolonizado através da corrupção, pp 162-3). Investigative Journalist Carlos Cardoso was assassinated in November 2000 while he was investigating the BCM case and the seeming protection of the culprits. In 2012 Namburete was made a member of TS.

Isabel Rupia was named a Deputy Attorney General by Chissano in 2000 as part of replacing the dismissed group, and concentrated on corruption. But she was dismissed in 2005 by Attorney General Joaquim Madeira; Savana says she has been investigating high figures in the nomenklatura and in Frelimo. In 2009 she was proposed by Renamo for the CC, but this was blocked by Frelimo. She was named to the TS in 2024.

João Beirão was a member of the National Elections Commission 2013-5. He was named vice president of the TS in 2015 by President Filipe Nyusi and after 10 years stepped down to be an ordinary TS judge.

Carlos Mondlane was a member of the Standing Committee of the Superior Council of the Judiciary 2019–2024, and was named to the TS in 2025. Savana says that Isable Rupia and Carlos Mondlane are considered ‘the most level-headed judges in this group’.

But the real issue of this trial will be Frelimo using the law for overtly political processes, against people of whom it is frightened. In the case of Venâncio Mondlane, he was first prevented from standing for parliament when the his party Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD) had its registration revoked after it was too late to stand for another party. He could stand for President because under the constitution all presidential candidates stand as individuals. That election was so corrupt that no one knows who really won, but Mondlane was officially second. He is clearly the most important opposition figure, but he was then banned from participating in the ongoing ‘National Dialogue’ because it was restricted to parties having seats in national or provincial parliaments. The move to try him for treason is seen as an attempt to prevent him standing in the next elections, by jailing him or forcing him to flee from Mozambique. But many civil society leaders argue that organising legal protests against manifestly corrupt elections cannot be seen as treason.

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The prosecution will use videos of his speeches and social media broadcasts to try to show that in promoting demonstrations he was ‘inciting collective disobedience’ and violence. The defence will be that his political statements and the civic protests were legitimate and within constitutional rights, and that he repeatedly opposed violence in his broadcasts. (Evidências 8 Sep)

It has already been decided that the trial will be in a small room without space for many press and public, according to Raul Sende and Cleto Duarte of Savana. Civil Society is pressing for the trial to be broadcast on TV, and the decision is up to the two trial leaders, Luís Mondlane and Namburete.