28 April 2008
Maputo — Anibal dos Santos Junior ("Anibalzinho"), who is serving a 30 year jail sentence for his part in the November 2000 murder of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso, on Monday claimed that his police guards are violating his human rights.
At his current trial, for the attempted murder of lawyer Albano Silva in 1999, he protested to the judge, Dimas Marroa, that he does not have a television in his cell.
"I've got problems with the Director of Order in this prison", he told the judge. "I don't have the right to a radio or a television. I'm being tortured psychologically".
"I'm being mistreated, and my life is in danger", Anibalzinho claimed. "I haven't eaten for three weeks. I want to serve my sentence, but with my rights. They're taking away my rights. I want to see television. I want to speak to people. But since I returned from Canada, I haven't spoken to anyone". (Anibalzinho escaped from the Maputo top security prison in May 2004, and somehow made his way to Canada. The Canadian authorities rejected his asylum claims and deported him in January 2005. Since then he has been imprisoned in a cell in the Maputo City police command).
The claim that he hasn't eaten conflicts with Anibalzinho's obviously robust and healthy frame. He certainly does not look like someone who has gone hungry for weeks. As for his claim that he wishes to serve his sentence, this contrasts with his four known attempts to escape from the police command.
The police told the court last week that food parcels from his home were stopped, because it was found that his family was slipping hacksaws and other escape equipment in with the food. He had complained about the quality of jail food, declaring "I've never eaten beans since I was born".
Under pressure from Anibalzinho's lawyer, Simeao Cuamba, Marroa has overridden the police and declared that as from Monday Anibalzinho will be allowed to receive food from his family, but under tight control.
"The world just wants to see the bad side of Anibalzinho, and not the good side", complained the assassin. "Up there (he gestured towards the cells) it's full of criminals. I never killed anybody. Everything is blamed on Anibalzinho".
He also claimed that he had overheard the prison commander ordering his subordinates to execute three prisoners near the Costa do Sol beach. (This was an incident that occurred in April 2007, and the policemen concerned were detained). How Anibalzinho, locked up for most of the day in his cell, would have been in any position to overhear such a sensitive conversation, he did not explain.
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