MAPUTO: Police in Mozambique arrested a senior official of Renamo, the country's largest opposition party, Tuesday on charges of inciting violence amid renewed political tension between the former rebel group and the government.
Police said Antonio Muchanga was arrested at a gas station in Matola, a town on the outskirts of the capital Maputo.
Muchanga, who is Renamo's spokesman, was released a few hours later.
He is accused of making speeches "inciting violence" and of organising an "illegal demonstration" after Renamo staged countrywide protests at the weekend.
Muchanga's lawyer Alice Mabota said the police had acted unlawfully.
"The arrest was illegal because there was no arrest warrant," she told opposition newspaper Canal de Mocambique.
Mudumane made no comment on the lawyer's claim, but said Muchanga was freed "on the orders of the public prosecutor".
The demonstrations were sparked by last week's confirmation by an electoral court that the long-ruling Frelimo party had won October's presidential and legislative polls.
Despite the electoral authorities' ruling, Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has refused to accept the results and threatened to create a parallel government.
Muchanga, who is also a member of the legislature, had already been arrested in July, also for allegedly inciting violence. He was released six weeks later following the adoption of an amnesty law as part of peace talks between the government and Renamo.
On Monday, he told reporters that Renamo lawmakers would boycott both the national and provincial parliaments.
The provincial assembly was due to be sworn in on January 7 and the national assembly on January 12.
Renamo and Frelimo fought a 16-year civil war that ended with a peace deal in 1992, but Renamo took to the bush again in late 2012 to wage a new low-level insurgency in the centre of the southeastern African country.
That instability ended with a ceasefire agreement signed on September 5.
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