Mozambique
Verdict on Mozambican Cardoso killers hailed

afrol News, 1 February - Six men accused of killing Mozambican journalist Carlos Cardoso in year 2000 were convicted yesterday, sentenced to lengthy prison terms at the trial in Mozambique's capital, Maputo. The harsh verdicts were welcomed by media watchdogs and Mozambicans at large.

Meanwhile, fugitive suspect Anibal dos Santos Junior, commonly known as Anibalzhino, who escaped from pre-trial detention, was captured on Thursday in South Africa and extradited to Mozambique, Interpol-South Africa announced.

Anibalzhino yesterday was tried in absentia for leading the death squad that murdered Cardoso in November 2000 and was sentenced to 28 years and six months in jail. The other five suspects were sentenced to at least 23 years in jail each. In addition, the court ordered the six to pay compensation of 14 billion meticais (US$ 588,000) to Cardoso's two children.

- There is a sense here that this ruling is more than expected," said South African journalist Phillip van Niekerk, who represented the international media watchdog , the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) at the verdict announcement. "People are glad because the sentences are very harsh," Mr van Niekerk added.

According to the South African journalist, Judge Augusto Paulino had vowed to push for a thorough investigation of President Joaquim Chissano's son Nymphine Chissano, who has been accused by most suspects of ordering Cardoso's murder.

- Now people here seem to be waiting to see how much further the judicial system can be stretched to take on the powerful, said Mr van Niekerk. "They are also asking if the manner and timing of the fugitive suspect Anibalzhino's arrest was not a cover-up to keep him from testifying in court. A serious investigation is urgently called for." Prison guards have said they unlawfully released Anibalzhino in September 2002 after receiving "orders from above."

The verdict comes more than two months after the trial opened in a maximum-security prison outside Maputo, the New York-based CPJ noted. The committee has closely watched the Cardoso case and pressured the Mozambican government to investigate it thoroughly.

The committee's representative was nevertheless quoted by the Mozambican AIM news agency to have "praised the sentence." Mr van Niekerk had told Mozambican reporters that this was "a major landmark for Mozambique, Africa and indeed the world". This was because it is so rare for such assassinations to make it to court at all. According to the CPJ, in 94 per cent of cases of journalists murdered in the exercise of their profession, nobody is ever charged with the crime, let alone sentenced.

Mozambique's most famous journalist, Carlos Cardoso, in 1999 and 2000 was investigating a prominent family's role in the nation's largest banking scandal. After receiving threats, he was assassinated by Anibalzhino in November 2000. It is not believed that those persons instructing the assassination have been caught yet, however, and pressure is high to follow the line of evidence connecting the President's son to the murder complot.

At this stage, Mozambicans however generally express joy the case has led to the sentencing of Anibalzhino and his executing comrades. Even Mr Cardoso's Norwegian widow, Nina Berg, expressed satisfaction yesterday. "I think the punishments were correct. I am happy," she told the press in Maputo.

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