MAPUTO, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A Mozambican court convicted a man on Friday for the November 2000 killing of journalist Carlos Cardoso and sentenced him to 30 years for a crime that threw the spotlight on corruption in the southern African country.
"The judges consider the charges proven and therefore decide in the name of the Republic of Mozambique to condemn Anibal dos Santos Junior", judge Dimas Marroa said as he passed sentence.
Dos Santos immediately protested his innocence in the crowded courtroom.
"It's an unfair judgement because I didn't ask for and didn't kill Carlos Cardoso," he said.
Dos Santos was sentenced to 28 years in prison in his absence after an earlier trial that delved into a web of organised crime and corruption and implicated the then- president's eldest son.
The Supreme Court ordered the retrial, saying the law required he should have been present for the hearing.
Cardoso, 49, was murdered while investigating the disappearance of $14 million in privatisation funds from a commercial bank.
Former President Joaquim Chissano's son Nyimpine was investigated after three men convicted in the case gave evidence connecting him to the killing. Nyimpine denied any involvement and was not charged.
Dos Santos first escaped from prison in September 2002 while awaiting trial and fled to South Africa, where he was caught and returned to Mozambique in 2003 -- days after he was convicted in absentia of Cardoso's murder.
He escaped a second time in May 2004. He was detained by immigration officials in Canada the same month.
