Contrary to initial claims by the Mozambican police, Aníbal “Anibalzinho” António dos Santos Junior, the convicted killer of journalist Carlos Cardoso, was not recaptured after escaping from prison for the third time on December 7 and is still on the run.
“We are puzzled and worried,” Paris-based Reporters sans frontières (RSF) reacted. “How can a convict of this kind escape three times? Anibalzinho must be recaptured quickly and made to complete his sentence, and those who helped him to escape must be identified and punished.”
Several prison guards reportedly helped Anibalzinho and two other inmates escape from a Maputo prison on the morning of December 7. He escaped for the first time in September 2002, and was captured in the South African capital of Pretoria five months later. He escaped again on May 10, 2002, only to be caught by Interpol on arrival at Toronto international airport.
Convicted on January 20, 2006 of being the leader of the hit squad that murdered Cardoso in 2000, Anibalzinho was sentenced to 30 years in jail.
