A court in Mozambique on Friday sentenced six men accused of murdering a prominent investigative journalist to between 23 and 28 years in prison.
The six were accused of murdering Carlos Cardoso in 2000 as he investigated the disappearance of about $14-million from Mozambique’s main bank, the Banco Comercial de Mocambique (BCM), before it was privatised in 1996.
The maximum sentence that can be passed in Mozambique is 24 years, but the court said that because of an accumulation of crimes, some of those sentenced on Friday got longer terms.
Momade Assif Satar, or ”Nini”, Ayob Satar and former BCM bank manager Vicente Ramaya were charged with ordering and paying for the murder of Cardoso, which rocked the southern African country.
Anibal Antonio dos Santos, generally known as Anibalzinho, Manuel dos Anjos Fernandes and Carlitos Rachide were accused of carrying out the killing.
Nini received 24 years in jail and Ayob Satar was imprisoned for 23 years, as were Ramaya, Fernandes and Rachide.
Anibalzinho, who recruited the criminal gang to carry out the murder, had been tried in his absence, but in a surprise turn of events was arrested in South Africa a day before the sentences were handed down.
He received 28 years in jail.
”Given the seriousness of the crimes … we impose maximum sentences on them,” Judge Augusto Paulino said in passing sentence, to noises of approval from spectators.
He also ordered compensation of 14 billion meticas ($583 000) to be paid to Cardoso’s widow and two children by the six collectively.
The trial has heard startling revelations, including a claim by three of the murder suspects that the eldest son of President Joaquim Chissano ordered Cardoso’s murder.
Anibalzinho mysteriously disappeared from the maximum security prison in Mozambique in September, just weeks before the trial.
However, South African police arrested the fugitive in the South African capital Pretoria on Thursday and he was to be sent back to Mozambique.
”He is at the airport right now,” police representative Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said in Pretoria.
Speaking in South Africa about the sentence then due to be handed down on him, Anibalzinho reportedly said: ”It will be as God wills.” – Sapa-AFP