Amnesty International and the Mozambique Human Rights Defenders Network (RMDDH) demanded Friday that Mozambican authorities investigate the arrest of human rights advocate and journalist Sheila Wilson following a demonstration on June 4 in the capital of Maputo.
Wilson was streaming for the Centre for Development and Democracy (CDD) outside the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office in Maputo, where former agents of the State Intelligence Service were demanding compensation not received from the government for more than 20 years. During the arrest, she was forcefully pushed into the police vehicle which resulted in a head injury. She has since been released
RMDDH condemned the arrest as an attack on democracy and human rights defenders, saying it directly violated the Constitution of Mozambique. As such, they urged for an intervention from the office of the Attorney General to enforce accountability for those responsible for the “kidnapping of the journalist.”
Amnesty International noted that the arrest of Wilson highlights the harsh treatment that journalists face in Mozambique, and constitutes a grave violation of the right to information, freedom of expression and opinion and freedom of the press.
Director of CDD in Mozambique, Adriano Nuvunga, asserted on X that despite Wilson’s release, her phone, an essential tool for her work, remains illegally retained by the police.
Upon her release, Wilson stated that after being held for six hours at the police station without the right to contact anyone, they told her that she will face an investigation without specifying any charges.
Former Defense and Security Forces (FDS) officers began a protest on May 28 and camped outside the UNDP office to demand compensation resulting from the General Peace Agreement, signed in 1992, which ended the civil war in the country. They claim that they were promised compensation upon their disbandment, but since then, they have not received any fulfillment of this promise. The police intervention led to hundreds of former Defense and Security Forces (FDS) officers fleeing from the protest.
