Maputo, June 16, 2025 (Lusa) - The Mozambican Supreme Court acknowledged on Monday that imprisonment as the sole means of curbing organised crime “is ineffective”, advocating collective action and the full recovery of assets obtained through illegal acts to encourage law-abiding behaviour.
"Imprisonment works best when combined with measures that deny organised crime the economic resources it accumulates through illegal activities and uses to strengthen itself, ensuring these advantages are removed." It uses the resources accumulated to reinvest in crime, perpetrating and perpetuating its illegal activities, said Luís Mabote, judge at the Maputo Court of Appeal.
He spoke today in Maputo on behalf of the president of the Supreme Court during the opening of an international seminar on asset recovery and fair compensation for victims, organised by the Centre for Public Integrity. In this non-governmental organisation, he advocated compensation for victims of organised crime.
"Just as important as asset recovery is compensation for victims of crime. Justice that focuses on punishing the perpetrator of the crime while overlooking the effects and compensation for the suffering caused to the victim remains incomplete. We need to change the paradigm; we need to start promoting principles of restorative justice," said the judge.
Luís Mabote argued that prison sentences alone now require additional measures for organised crime, arguing that other sanctions are needed to encourage offenders to stop using the proceeds to recruit new members to a crime that corrupts and weakens state institutions.
“With this collective commitment, even the best legal systems and the most comprehensive institutional networks can become effective. This task belongs to all of us, and civil society plays a decisive role in this fight. Civil society can demand transparency, inform the public and promote a culture of integrity,” said the judge of the Maputo Court of Appeal.
At the same event, the Mozambican Public Prosecutor's Office stated that the authorities will utilise assets recovered from criminal activities, in addition to compensating victims, for development projects in the country.
"The Attorney General's Office recognises that, more than punishing offenders, it is necessary to remove them from their sphere of influence and all the benefits generated by their crimes, placing them in the situation they would have been in if the crime had not been committed," said Naftal Zucula, from the Attorney General's Office of Mozambique (PGR).
On 29 April 2024, Lusa reported that the Central Office for Asset Recovery in Mozambique seized assets valued at around 4.4 billion meticais (€61 million) in 2024, compared to 1.3 billion (€17 million) in the previous year.
Data revealed on that date by Mozambique's Attorney General, Américo Letela, indicate that of the total assets seized, 34 are real estate, valued at just over 4.2 billion meticais (almost €60 million), and 183 are vehicles, valued at just over 134 million meticais (almost €2 million).
“We stress the need to pass a civil confiscation law as an additional means of combating organised and transnational crime, ensuring criminals cannot retain the proceeds of their illegal activities,” said Américo Letela, who presented the institution's annual activity report.
In June 2024, the Public Prosecutor's Office reported that, over the last 10 years, Mozambique had recovered almost three billion meticais (approximately €43 million) in 11,000 cases involving corruption, terrorist financing, and money laundering.
PME/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
