Three Mozambican police officers have been arrested in connection with the escape on Sunday of the convicted murderer of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso from a maximum security jail, the interior ministry said.
Anibal Antonio dos Santos, better known as Anibalzinho, was serving a 28-year prison sentence for the 2000 murder of Cardoso, an investigative journalist who was reporting on Mozambique’s biggest bank fraud.
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano at a function Monday night said regional police forces and Interpol had been put on alert following the escape of Dos Santos.
”This convict must be recaptured immediately so that he serves his sentence,” he said in comments quoted by Mozambican television.
Interior ministry spokesman Nataniel Macamo told reporters three senior police officers with key responsibilities at the prison were arrested because ”they were negligent and were not at their positions when Anibalzinho escaped”.
”Three police officers including an inspector and the man who was responsible for operating the camera had left their posts and they have been arrested for that,” he said late on Monday.
The jailbreak is the second by Dos Santos, who also escaped in September 2002 and was captured over a year later in South Africa.
Seven policemen were arrested at the time, but a judge later withdrew the charges against them saying they were not the ones who plotted the escape.
Anilbalzinho’s latest escape comes as a Maputo court was preparing to announce the verdict in the trial of about 20 people accused of involvement in a 1996 bank fraud of $14-million (12-million euros), which Cardoso was investigating when he was killed.
Among them are Vicente Ramaya, former manager of the branch of Banco Comercial de Mocambique (BCM) from where the fraud was orchestrated, and the Satar brothers, Ayob and Momad, known as Nini.
Ramaya, Ayob and Nini are serving sentences of between 23 and 24 years for the murder of Cardoso, who was gunned down in the Mozambican capital.
Local press reports recently said that Anibalzinho, who is in his mid-thirties, could soon make revelations about Cardoso’s murder.
The press has reported that Ramaya and the Satar brothers were also plotting a jailbreak.
In addition to investigating the banking scandal, Cardoso had been vocal in denouncing illegal schemes in which Mozambican trade was used as a cover for a number of shady deals, including ones involving drugs. – Sapa-AFP