A lawyer representing Mozambican opposition leader Venancio Mondlane was shot dead in the national capital of Maputo late Friday night. Elvino Dias was killed alongside his colleague, Podemos party spokesman Paulo Guambe, when gunmen targeted their car, authorities reported on Saturday.
The assassinations followed a presidential election in the southern African country that has sparked allegations of vote-rigging against the long-ruling Frelimo party. Dias had been preparing an appeal for Podemos to challenge the final results, which the electoral authority is expected to announce on Wednesday, according to local media.
Images shared on social media showed the bloody bodies of Dias and Guambe inside the bullet-riddled car. About 25 shots were fired into the vehicle by “unknown individuals,” local non-profit group Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) reported, citing witnesses.
Maputo Police spokesperson Leonel Muchina told reporters the victims had earlier been at a local bar, where they had argued with other customers about “marital issues,” according to the news agency Club of Mozambique. Muchina stated that the assailants, whose names he declined to reveal, followed the victims, blocked their car and then shot them. A woman in the car sustained injuries and was taken for treatment.
“This is undoubtedly a political crime, orchestrated by death squads that have long targeted activists, human rights defenders, and independent lawyers,” CDD director Adriano Nuvunga said in a statement.
Tensions have been rising in Mozambique following the October 9 election, which Frelimo Party candidate Daniel Chapo is projected to have won. The 47-year-old politician, who is seen as untouched by the corruption scandals that have marred the ruling party’s legacy, has been touted as potentially ushering in a new chapter for a country that had been ruled by the same coalition since gaining independence from Portugal in 1975.
Mondlane, an independent candidate backed by Podemos, rejected the preliminary results that placed him second behind Chapo.
The politician has reportedly accused national security forces of murdering his lawyer and ally and attempting to conceal their involvement. Mondlane claimed that police had removed spent cartridges from the crime scene and seized or damaged potential witnesses’ mobile phones, Club of Mozambique reported.
On Monday, the African Union, whose observer mission is monitoring the electoral process in Mozambique, condemned the killings and expressed “deep concern” about the reported post-election violence.
The European Union has criticized the “politically motivated killings” and urged the government to launch an independent investigation into the incident.