"METICAL" LIBEL CASE POSTPONED AGAIN

Maputo, 28 Dec (AIM) - The libel case that pits businessman Nhimpine Chissano, son of Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, against journalist Marcelo Mosse and the independent newsheet "Metical", was once again postponed on Friday, when the court admitted that the defence had been given insufficient notification.

The standard legal procedure is that the defence must be notified at least five clear days in advance of any trial. At the court, the case papers must be available for the defence to study for at least three full days.

But in this case, Mosse was notified on 26 December that the trial would take place on the 28th.

The notification to "Metical" should have been sent to the home of Nina Berg, widow of murdered journalist Carlos Cardoso, who had been the founder, owner and first editor of "Metical". Instead, the court simply sent it to the "Metical" office.

The notifications came as a shock. At a previous hearing, on 17 December, which discussed exclusively the procedural irregularities in the prosecution case, the defence believed it had secured the judge's consent to a postponement of any trial until late January.

The judge, Wilson Dambo, certainly knew that "Metical"'s lawyer, Lucinda Cruz, would be on holiday in late December, since she made a point of telling him so.

When the notification arrived, Berg was forced to contact Cruz, and ask her to interrupt her holiday. This she did - flying down from the beach resort of Vilanculos, some 700 kilometres north of Maputo, on Thursday.

At the Friday hearing, the defence protested vigorously at the failure to observe due process. Nhimpine Chissano's lawyer, Antonio Balate, argued that, since everybody was present in the court despite the irregularities in notification, the trial might as well go ahead straightaway.

But, after over an hour of arguments, the court conceded that the defence was in the right, and that the trial must therefore be postponed. The judge said he was not to blame for the hasty notification, responsibility for which was thrust onto the shoulders of a court official.

A new date, 21 January, has now been set for the trial.

The libel suit arises out of articles published early this year. The main complaint made by Balate, in a letter sent to "Metical" in March, was that his client "never transported cocaine or other substances forbidden by law inside or outside the country".

But no "Metical" story linked cocaine to Nhimpine Chissano. The main "Metical" article cited by Balate simply reported an alleged detention of Nhimpine in South Africa, and a denial by the Mozambican President's office that anyone had been sent to South Africa to pay bail for Chissano Jr.

The cocaine allegation was first made in the South African weekly, the "Mail and Guardian", under the byline of a South African journalist. It was later repeated, under Mosse's byline, in the Portuguese weekly "Expresso" - Mosse is the "Expresso" correspondent in Maputo.

One of the major irregularities which the defence has noted in the prosecution case is that it throws all these articles together, as though "Metical" has some kind of editorial control over what appears in the South African and Portuguese press.

Other irregularities claimed by the defence concern the date on which Balate submitted the accusation (a day beyond the legal time limit, says the defence), and the absence of any position from the Public Prosecutor's Office. Because libel is a criminal, and not merely a civil, matter in Mozambique, the Public Prosecutor should also express an opinion - either supporting the private prosecution, or drawing up separate charges, or declaring that there is no case to answer.

But the Public Prosecutor has done none of the above, and so the defence argues there is no case to answer.

One may suspect that the attempt to hold a trial on Friday was because the last edition of "Metical" appeared on Friday. The company is closing down, and the prosecution may have wished to pursue its claim for 1.8 billion meticais (about 78,250 US dollars) damages before the paper was wound up.

But in fact, despite the closure of a company, its owners remain legally liable for its acts. Nhimpine Chissano's claim against "Metical" will not evaporate just because the paper is no longer published.

The owners of "Metical" are Cardoso's heirs, his children Ibo and Milena (aged 12 and six), for whom Berg has been acting.
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Related articles:
AIM article of 17 December: "Metical" libel case postponed again
article by J. Hanlon on Chissano's court action against metical