24 April 2008
Maputo — In the case of the six men accused of the 1999 attempted murder of top Mozambican lawyer Albano Silva, the defence on Thursday tried to discredit the key prosecution claim that a series of conspiratorial meetings had taken place in the Rovuma Hotel in central Maputo.
According to the prosecution, these meetings were held to plan a second attempt against Silva's life, after the first, on 29 November 1999, had failed.
The key witness to these meetings is Osvaldo Muianga ("Dudu") who acted as the link between Momad Assife Abdul Satar ("Nini"), who was allegedly paying for the assassination, and the man who was supposed to organise the death squad, Anibal dos Santos Junior ("Anibalzinho").
Muianga claimed that not only Nini Satar, but also his brother Ayob (the owner of the now defunct foreign exchange bureau Unicambios), and their associate Vicente Ramaya had been present at one or more of the three meetings at the Rovuma.
Domingos Arouca, the lawyer for Ayob Satar, demanded that Muianga present "irrefutable proof" that the Rovuma meetings had occurred. "He hasn't presented any proof at all", he protested.
He was backed up by Anibalzinho's lawyer, Simiao Cuamba, who though it "pertinent" that Muianga had "no proof".
But what "proof" of clandestine meetings could there be? The defence noted that Muianga could not remember the numbers of the rooms where the meetings were held. For Antonio Vasconcelos Porto, the lawyer prosecuting on behalf of Silva, this was irrelevant. "I've been in dozens of hotels in my life, and I can't remember the room numbers", he said.
Vasconcelos thought that Muianga had given a credible account of three meetings in three different rooms, all at night. He situated the first room at the back of the hotel, and the two others at the front. On the third occasion, Muianga said he could look through the window and see the Maputo Catholic cathedral - which is indeed clearly visible from rooms on that side of the hotel.
Muianga's account of the meetings was that the Satar brothers and Ramaya were angered that Silva was still alive, and blamed Fernando Magno, the man they had initially entrusted with the murder, and who had recruited Anibalzinho. But Anibalzinho claimed that Magno never paid him - which was why the first attempt was botched.
The three plotters did not want the second attempt to fail, and were demanding success as a condition for handing over all the promised money. Muianga recalled Ayob Satar in the final meeting demanding evidence of Silva's death. "Bring me Albano Silva's tie soaked with blood", Ayob allegedly declared.
Although Muianga had been accused in the past of repeatedly changing his testimony, it has remained stable for the past five years. The story he told the court on Wednesday and Thursday was essentially the same as the testimony he gave at the trial of the Satars, Ramaya, Anibalzinho and two others for the murder of the country's top investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso.
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