URGENT ACTION
journalists AND activists THREATened
Local journalists and civil society activists have received anonymous death threats and intimidating phone calls and messages since 10 October. This began after their engagement in monitoring polling stations and publishing live municipal election results in Nacala-Porto and Nampula cities, Nampula province, in northern Mozambique. 
Antônio Lourenço Mutoua a human rights defender and Executive Director of the organization Solidariedade Moçambique; Júlio Paulino, the Image and Communications Officer of Solidariedade Moçambique; Arlindo César Severiano Chissale, an independent journalist; Aunício da Silva, a newspaper editor; two journalists who prefer to stay anonymous due to security risks; priests Father Benvindo Tapua and Father Cantífulas de Castro, Director and Deputy Director of Radio Encontro respectively, have been receiving anonymous death threats, intimidating phone calls and other messages for their work around the municipal elections. The threats began after the municipal elections in Nampula Province on 10 October and the publication of election results on 12 October. 
The intimidating phone calls and messages have contained warnings to “be careful” because “their days were numbered” and contained threats that they “would disappear without a trace”. The messages are blaming them for contributing to the defeat of the ruling party, Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), by organising individuals to monitor polling stations and publish live election results direct from polling stations. 
The journalists and civil society activists had been involved in covering and monitoring the municipal elections. 
Please write immediately to the Mozambican authorities in Portuguese, English, or your own language:
•	Urging them to take immediate measures to end the continuing death threats and intimidation against these journalists and civil society activists and ensure their safety and protection and that of their families, in consultation with them;
•	Calling on them to conduct thorough, impartial, independent and effective investigations into the death threats and intimidation against them and their families, and bring those suspected to be responsible to justice in trials which meet international standards of fairness;
•	Calling on them to ensure a safe and enabling environment in which journalists, other media workers, activists and human rights defenders are able to carry out their work without fear of reprisals.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 30 NOVEMBER 2018 TO:

Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs
Joaquim Veríssimo	
Av. Julius Nyerere 33
Maputo, Mozambique	
Fax: +258-21-494264
Salutation: Your Excellency

General Public Prosecutor	
Beatriz Buchili	
Av. Vladimir Lenine, 121
Maputo, Mozambique
Fax: +258 82 3161 920
Salutation: Dear General Public
Prosecutor

And copies to:
President of the National Human Rights Commission
Luís Bitone	
Av. Fernão de Magalhães, 63
1st floor
Maputo, Mozambique	
Email: lbitnahe@gmail.com
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. HIS EXCELLENCY MR FILIPE CHIDUMO, High Commission for the Republic of Mozambique, 21 Fitzroy Square, London, W1T 6EL tel: 020 7383 3800  Fax 020 7383 3801 email: sectorconsular@mozambiquehc.co.uk www.mozambiquehighcommission.org.uk, Salutation: Your Excellency	

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. 

URGENT ACTION
journalists and activists THREATened
ADditional Information
In the past four years, journalists, government critics and dissenting voices have been subjected to intimidation, harassment, torture and enforced disappearances. Most of the attacks against them remain in impunity. To this day, the authorities have failed to adequately investigate the threats and attacks, and no one has been held accountable. 
Antônio Lourenço Mutoua, a human rights defender and Executive Director of Solidariedade Moçambique, a national human rights organization, has been receiving death threats against him and his family since 11 October. Antônio Mutoua went into hiding after the continued death threats. In one of the last anonymous messages he received, he was threatened with the kidnap his children if he did not come out of hiding. Solidariedade Moçambique supports the work of community radios, including Radio Encontro, and it also participated on the live coverage of the municipal elections.
Father Benvindo Tapua and Father Cantífulas de Castro, Director and Deputy Director of Radio Encontro, have been receiving death threats since 12 October. Radio Encontro provided live coverage of the municipal elections, and their election observers were monitoring and publicly sharing information on the electoral process at the polling stations. 
Two journalists, who prefer to stay anonymous, in Nacala-Porto city, Nampula province, have also been receiving death threats and intimidating anonymous phone calls after the release of municipal elections partial results on 12 October. On 15 October, the journalists filed a complaint at the district police station, but no measure has been taken to ensure their protection and to investigate the threats.
Arlindo César Severiano Chissale, an independent journalist in Nacala-Porto city, in Nampula province, received intimidating messages on 13 October, after publishing an article on the municipal elections in the local electronic newspaper Pinnacle News. 
Aunício da Silva, editor of local weekly newspaper Ikweli, has been receiving death threats following his participation in the reporting on the released of the municipal elections partial results. 
Name: Antônio Lourenço Mutoua Arlindo César Severiano Chissale, Aunício da Silva, two journalists, Father Benvindo Tapua, Father Cantífulas de Castro and Júlio Paulino
Gender m/f: m

UA: 186/18 Index: AFR 41/9263/2018 Issue Date: 19 October 2018