attached mail follows:
NEWS
Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001 USA Phone: (212) 465-1004
Fax: (212) 465-9568 Web: www.cpj.org E-Mail: media@cpj.org
http://www.cpj.org Contact: Yves Sorokobi
e-mail: info@cpj.org Telephone: (212) 465-1004 x112
New York, December 19, 2002-Anibal dos Santos Junior, commonly known as
Anibalzhino, a fugitive suspect in the murder case of Mozambican journalist
Carlos Cardoso, has sent a videotaped testimony to the Maputo City Court.
Augusto Paulino, the trial judge, declined to reveal its content.
Law enforcement officials in the capital, Maputo, acknowledged receiving the
videotape early this week from Teresinha Mendonca, Anibalzhino's mother, but
they also declined to comment on its content. According Mendonca, her son is
hiding in London.
Anibalzhino was arrested in March 2001, along with five other suspects. He
was illegally released from Maputo's maximum-security prison three months
ago after prison guards received "orders from above" to do so. He is being
tried in absentia for allegedly leading the group of hitmen that fatally
shot Cardoso on November 22, 2000.
Copies of Anibalzhino's tape are circulating in the capital, said several
Mozambican journalists. According to state news agency AIM, Anibalzhino is
said to insist that two other men on trial, Momade Abdul Satar and his
brother Ayob, are the actual masterminds of the murder, steering suspicions
away from Nymphine Chissano, a son of President Joaquim Chissano, whom most
of the defendants have accused of commissioning Cardoso's killing.
Anibalzhino also claims on the tape that one of the suspects, former bank
manager Vicente Ramaya, is innocent, and according to AIM, Anibalzhino
apologizes to the Cardoso family "for everything that has happened."
Meanwhile, the court will again question Nymphine Chissano "before
Christmas," reported the independent MediaFax. The paper said that in
addition to Chissano, law enforcement authorities would also query Octavio
Muthemba, a former industry minister and Nymphine's business partner.
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to
safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information about press
conditions in Mozambique, visit www.cpj.org.
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