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Mozambique: Albano Silva Case - Nini Satar Claims There Was No Attack
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
29 April 2008
Posted to the web 29 April 2008
Maputo
Momad Assife Abdul Satar ("Nini"), one of those found guilty of defrauding the commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM) of the equivalent of 14 million dollars, on Tuesday claimed that the attempted murder of the bank's lawyer Albano Silva had been faked.
Nini Satar, who is also serving a 24 year prison sentence for his part in the murder of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso, is one of six men currently on trial before the Maputo City Court for the November 1999 attempt to assassinate Silva.
Unlike his five co-accused, Satar did not merely deny participating in the crime, but claimed that it had never taken place. He alleged that Silva had "simulated" the attempt on his life.
Asked how he explained the bullet hole in the window of Silva's car, Satar claimed that Silva could have shot the gun himself.
One of Satar's arguments was that real assassins would never have dared carry out such an attack on a busy thoroughfare such as Mao Tse-Tung Avenue in central Maputo, and particularly not near a police station (the Maputo third precinct). "There are policemen outside, and the murderers might easily be arrested", he claimed.
AIM is familiar with this police station and, contrary to Satar's claims, there are often no policemen outside it. Mao Tse Tung Avenue is a long and broad street down which an assassin's car could speed without much fear of being caught.
As with his co-accused, among the most powerful pieces of evidence against Satar are his mobile phone records. These show that in 2000 Satar rang up Anibal dos Santos Junior ("Anibalzinho") no less than 293 times. Anibalzinho is the man who recruited the death squad that murdered Cardoso. The prosecution says that he was also hired for the attempt on Silva's life, and, after the failure of the first attempt, he was present at a series of clandestine meetings with Satar in 2000 to plot a second attempt.
Satar gave no explanation for these frequent phone conversations with Anibalzinho, and instead demanded to see the phone records. Antonio Vasconcelos Porto, representing Silva's private prosecution, pointed out that the records are in the court case file (and thus readily available to Satar's lawyer).
Satar admitted that he had made large payments to Anibalzinho in 2000 but, just as in the Cardoso murder trial, he claimed he did so at the request of businessman Nyimpine Chissano, the oldest son of the then President, Joaquim Chissano. Conveniently for Satar, Nyimpine Chissano died of a heart attack last November.
He said he had made "several payments" to Anibalzinho, but could only recall the size of one of them, which was for 80 million meticais (around 4,000 US dollars at the exchange rate of the time).
He admitted a conversation with a man named Momade Shayid in July 2000 in which he had told Shayid to advise Silva to leave the country. Asked to explain this apparently threatening remark, Satar said he had just spoken to the then Maputo chief attorney, Diamantino dos Santos, who was "furious" with Silva, and he feared that Diamantino might "do something bad" to Silva.
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"I said I would try to find out from Diamantino what was going on", claimed Satar. In the meantime, it might be a good idea for Silva to make himself scarce.
Diamantino dos Santos is one of the attorneys whom Silva accuses of working hand in glove with those who defrauded the BCM, and of disorganizing the case file so that it the BCM case would be in no condition to go to trial. He came under investigation for corruption, and fled the country in 2001.
Pf/ (614)
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| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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