OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Wednesday
HALF a year after the assassination of Mozambican journalist Carlos Cardoso – editor of the independent fax newspaper Metical – the country’s public prosecutor’s office has charged six people for the murder, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) reported on Tuesday.
Quoting the Tuesday issue of Metical, Misa said the public prosecutor charged businessman Ayob Abdul Satar and former bank manager Vicente Ramaya for ordering the killing.
The four others – Ayob’s brother Momade Assife Abdul Satar, Anibal Antonio dos Santos Junior, Carlitos Rachid and Manuel Fernandes – were accused of carrying out the murder.
Cardoso had investigated the business activities of the wealthy and powerful Abdul Satar family. He had also pursued the country’s largest ever bank fraud in which $14m- (about R112m) were siphoned from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM) on the eve of its privatisation in 1996.
The key figures accused of the fraud are members of the Abdul Satar family and Vicente Ramaya, who was in charge of the BCM branch where the crime occurred.
The matter never came to court because of high-level corruption in the attorney general’s office, which was also investigated by Cardoso, said Misa.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of Diamantino dos Santos, the prosecutor who was originally in charge of the BCM case. However, his whereabouts were unknown.
Misa said the murder case would enter a new phase in which the defence lawyers would be officially informed of the charges and would be given access to the case file.
They may request further investigations which they regard as useful for establishing the innocence of their clients.
Misa said the investigations were expected to last three months after which the prosecution would draw up a definitive charge sheet and deliver it to the investigating magistrate.
The magistrate would decide whether the evidence was strong enough for the case to go to trial.
On Tuesday night, six months to the day since the murder, Cardoso’s family, friends and colleagues were to gather at the site of his murder to lay wreaths and pay homage.
Cardoso was shot dead on November 22 last year as he left Metical’s offices in Maputo’s Polana suburb.
After two vehicles cut off Cardoso’s car, two assassins opened fire with AK-47 assault rifles, killing him instantly and seriously wounding his driver.
Shortly before his death, Metical had reported aggressively on alleged irregularities at BCM.
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