Judges dismissed for corruption

The deputy chairperson of the Mozambican Association of Judges (AMJ), Jafete Fremo, has confirmed that three judges were expelled from the judicial system for corruption and poor application of the law. According to the Club of Mozambique, Fremo said the dismissal of the judges must be seen ‘as a positive act, as it takes place in a sector that least tolerates professional deviation’. Noe Jose Zimpinga and Serguei Costa were dismissed for ‘illicit behaviour’. Both judges were accused of extortion and corruption. Zimpinga had been involved in the pigeon pea scandal in 2023-2024. The dispute was between companies exporting pigeon peas from Mozambique to India. Zimpinga had ordered the seizure of goods valued at $70m and ordered their sale to cover a supposed debt – even after the Public Prosecutor’s Office had ordered the case to be shelved. Costa illegally ordered the detention of a woman, but four days later ordered her release. In a second case, he sentenced a 12-year-old child, of Chinese nationality, to a year’s imprisonment, along with three Chinese adults, without any of them being heard in court. In addition, he not only rejected appeals by the defence lawyers, but dismissed them as ‘time-wasting manoeuvres’. The third judge was not named.