24 April 2008
Maputo — Fernando Magno, the man allegedly hired to assassinate one of Mozambique's top lawyers, Albano Silva, in 1999, on Thursday categorically denied any connection with the plot.
The prosecution claims that Momad Assife Abdul Satar ("Nini") paid Magno 40,000 South African rands to prepare the assassination. The Abdul Satar family was deeply involved in the fraud that cost the country's largest commercial bank, the BCM, the equivalent of 14 million US dollars in 1996. Silva was the BCM's lawyer who was fighting to bring the case to trial, and the prosecution argues that Nini Satar was determined to silence him.
After receiving the money, Magno allegedly hired Anibal dos Santos Junior ("Anibalzinho") to join the death squad. Anibalzinho would become notorious a year later when he headed the death squad that murdered investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso on 22 November 2000.
But the attempt to murder Silva went wrong. The assassin's bullet, fired through the window of Silva's car, missed his head by a few millimetres. Anibalzinho later claimed this was deliberate, because Magno had failed to pay the sum agreed.
On the witness stand before the Maputo City Court on Thursday, Magno admitted to friendly relations with Nini Satar, and described Anibalzinho as "a simple mechanic", who repaired cars used in Magno's business "every now and then". Magno presents himself as a legitimate businessman, who promotes musical shows - but the private prosecution, presented by the lawyer acting for Silva, Antonio Vasconcelos Porto, describes him as a car thief.
Magno flatly denied that he was hired to kill Silva. "I don't know Albano Silva, and I didn't even know he'd been attacked", he said. "I didn't know it had happened".
The problem with this denial is that here is a lengthy written confession signed by Magno, and dated 11 April 2001. Now, on the witness stand, Magno withdrew that confession, describing it as "completely false".
He claimed he had signed it at the insistence of the then head of the Maputo branch of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), Antonio Frangoulis. He alleged that Frangoulis told him he had been arrested in connection with the murder of Cardoso - but he would not be charged with the Cardoso assassination, if he confessed to the lesser crime of the attempted murder of Silva.
"Frangoulis told me "just say you received this money (from Nini Satar), and I will remove your name from the Carlos Cardoso case, and you will go free", said Magno. "He did remove my name from the Cardoso case. But he kept me in prison".
Vasconcelos pointed out that the statement he had signed was not just about the money he had supposedly received. "It wasn't a couple of lines long - it went on for pages. What else did you say?"
But Magno refused to speak in any detail about the 2001 confession, blaming it all on Frangoulis. He thought it perfectly normal to admit to crimes in order to secure his freedom. "Who wouldn't tell a lie in order to get out of jail?", he asked.
Vasconcelos cited Magno's cell phone records. These show that in the two weeks before the attempted murder and the two weeks following it he had rung Anibalzinho no less than 59 times. Why should he make such frequent contact with a man he described as "a simple mechanic", who repaired his vehicles "now and then"?
Magno stuck to his story, and insisted that he had only discussed car repairs with Anibalzinho.
Vasconcelos pointed out that when Magno's house was raided in June 2000, a scrap of paper was found bearing a diagram of Mao Tse-Tung Avenue, the thoroughfare where the attempted murder occurred, and looking very much like a plan for the assassination. Shown the diagram, Magno declared "this isn't my handwriting. It's a forgery".
But who would have forged it?, asked Vasconcelos. For the raid was not in connection with the attempted murder - it was carried out by the customs service, investigating rackets involving the import of cars stolen in South Africa (one of which was found on Magno's property).
On two occasions, Magno, rather than answering the questions put to him, boasted of his sexual prowess, talking of the number of married women he had supposedly seduced. On the second occasion, the presiding judge, Dimas Marroa, cut him short, and threatened to send him back to his cell.
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