Press freedom organisations have welcomed the conviction in the murder of Carlos Cardoso, but called on authorities to pursue those who had masterminded the killing of Mozambique's leading investigative journalist.
A court in the capital, Maputo, convicted Anibal dos Santos Jr for the second time of recruiting Cardoso's killers. Dos Santos, better known as Anibalzinho, was sentenced to almost 30 years in prison. The conviction ended a two-month retrial. Anibalzinho, who escaped twice from custody, was convicted in absentia in 2003 of involvement in the 2000 murder. Anibalzinho, who has Portuguese citizenship, successfully appealed to the Supreme Court in December 2004 for a retrial.
"This conviction and stiff sentence send a clear message that those who murder journalists will not go unpunished," said Ann Cooper, CPJ Executive Director. "Mozambican authorities must now ensure that Anibalzinho serves the full term of his sentence, and must continue with the investigation to ensure that all those responsible are brought to justice."
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) too welcomed the sentence, but said many questions remained and called for investigation of claims by his accomplices that former President Joaquim Chissano's son Nyimpine had been involved, and also for an enquiry into Anibalzinho's two escapes from prison since the murder. RSF urged authorities to see that Anibalzinho and his accomplices served their sentences in view of his previous escapes. It noted that "a journalist's killers are rarely prosecuted in Africa." RSF called on the authorities to reveal who ordered the killing.
In imposing the maximum penalty in the case, the court ordered Anibalzinho to pay compensation of 14 billion meticais (about $560, 000) to Cardoso's two children, 1.5 billion meticais to Cardoso's driver Carlos Manjate (who has been declared unfit to work because of the bullet wound to his head), and $12,000 to the owner of the stolen Citi-Golf car used in the murder. Anibalzinho is also to pay 50 million meticais to Arlindo Massalonga, the owner of a Mercedes-Benz, which he stole in 1993.
The court ordered Anibalzinho to pay 14 billion meticals (US$584,000) in damages to Cardoso's family and 1.5 billion meticals (US$62,500) in damages to Cardoso's driver, who was severely injured in the attack. Judge Dima Marroa ordered Anibalzinho to be deported from Mozambique upon completion of the sentence.
Fernando Lima, a close colleague and friend of Cardoso's, told CPJ that local journalists were pleased with the verdict. However, he said journalists were concerned that Anibalzinho might escape again because of lax prison security. The trial judge rejected a prosecution request for Anibalzinho to serve out his sentence in Portugal.
Lima told CPJ that an investigation into Nyimpine Chissano's alleged involvement, launched in early 2003, was still ongoing despite little public progress. Nyimpine Chissano, who testified at the retrial, has denied any involvement.
Cardoso founded the press organisation Mediacoop in 1992, and later launched fax newsletter Metical of which he was editor at the time of his death. Cardoso was murdered in a main street of capital on November 22, 2000, when two gunmen surrounded his car and opened fire. Cardoso was hit in the head and died on the spot and his driver was badly wounded.
The journalist had been investigating the country's biggest financial scandal since independence, the embezzlement of the equivalent of £14 million from Mozambique's Banco Comercial, and had pointed a finger at three powerful businessmen, the Satar brothers and Vicente Ramaya. Two of the five accused killers, during their trial in January 2003, said Nyimpine Chissano had ordered the murder. A few weeks earlier, prosecutor-general Joaquim Madeira said a new investigation was under way into Chissano's involvement. The president's son was summoned as a witness at the trial but denied any link with Anibalzinho.
Anibalzinho escaped from Maputo's top-security prison in May 2004 and was arrested by Interpol a few days later on arrival at Toronto airport, where he had asked for political asylum. He was extradited to Mozambique in January 2005. He had earlier escaped from Maputo prison in September 2002 and was captured in Pretoria (South Africa) in January 2003, the same day he was sentenced in his absence to 28 years in prison by a Maputo court for the murder. Friday's verdict came after a retrial, ordered on appeal because the first trial was in absentia.
Anibalzinho's extradition from Canada had become possible after he dropped his political asylum request in response to the Mozambique supreme court's decision that anyone sentenced in absentia to more than two years in prison had the right to a new trial. Canadian authorities approved the extradition on December 14, 2005.
