Movement for Democracy challenges suspicions of political interference
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on A Nação
The Movement for Democracy challenges suggestions of political interference in the Judicial Police made by the Cape Verdean interior minister and prime minister. The party is reacting to Operation “Shark”, which led this week to the arrest of more than 20 suspects linked to drug trafficking and money laundering, according to A Nação.
The Movement for Democracy (MpD), the main opposition party in Cape Verde, challenges suggestions of political interference in Judicial Police (PJ) investigations made by Interior Minister Carlos Sena Teixeira and Prime Minister Francisco Carvalho over Operation “Shark”. The operation led this week to the arrest of more than two dozen suspects believed to belong to a criminal organisation linked to drug trafficking and money laundering.
The MpD welcomes the work of the PJ and the public prosecutor’s office against organised crime and recalls that those targeted are presumed innocent. The party says the government’s statements could suggest that procedures had previously been blocked within the PJ and calls for any evidence establishing political intervention to be submitted to the public prosecutor’s office.
The opposition party also says the government should not present the execution of warrants issued by the public prosecutor’s office as proof of its political will. It calls on Prime Minister Francisco Carvalho to explain statements made about the arrest of a senior official of an institution, who had been appointed about two months earlier by a decision of the head of government.
The party reaffirms its confidence in the Judicial Police, the public prosecutor’s office and the courts and calls for the separation of powers to be respected. It says allegations of interference must be supported by facts or withdrawn.
