Mbanza-Kongo – A Police Officer from the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC), in the province of Zaire, was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in prison, by the Mbanza-Kongo District Court.
This is investigation superintendent Afonso Mbiyavanga, former SIC Director, in the municipality of Nzeto, convicted of crimes of favoritism, abuse of power, malfeasance and obstruction of justice.
According to the sentence read by the judge in the Walter dos Santos case, it was proven, at trial, that the defendant during the investigations distorted the real facts that occurred at the time of the crime.
The convict, according to the ruling, obscured the possible paths that would lead to the discovery of those responsible for the death of little Ema Pereira João Rolando, better known as Ema, which occurred on June 19, 2020, in the fishing village of Nzeto.
Ema Rolando, 9 years old, at the time of the events, was found hanging from a two-and-a-half-meter tall pine cone fruit tree, inside the backyard where she lived with her mother, in the Kibonga neighborhood, on the outskirts of municipal headquarters.
According to reports, the girl was killed by alleged asphyxiation and her body was later hung from the tree.
Ema's body was removed from the tree on the evening of the same day and later taken to the Nzeto Municipal Hospital, where spermatozoa were allegedly introduced into the girl's vaginal canal to disguise the fact that the child had suffered sexual abuse before death.
Afonso Mbiyavanga was also ordered to pay a court fee of 60.000Kz (US$67.9), in a case called the “Ema Case”, which also involved the girl's uncle and mother.
However, due to insufficient evidence, the Mbanza Kongo District Court acquitted the defendants Kavungo Nzuzi Júnior, former administrator of the Nzeto Municipal Hospital (uncle of the deceased) and Conceição João Pereira, mother of the victim and girlfriend of the SIC officer, now condemned.
DMN/JL/CF/DOJ
