19 May 2008
Maputo — Marcial Muthemba, a car thief who gave evidence in the trial of the murderers of journalist Carlos Cardoso in 2002, on Monday tried to retract that evidence when he testified at the trial of some of the same people, this time accused of the attempted murder in 1999 of prominent lawyer Albano Silva.
Muthemba has been in and out of prison for the past decade, and is currently serving a sentence for car theft at the Maputo top security jail, known colloquially as the BO.
In 2001-02, Muthemba was awaiting trial on another charge of car theft. While in the BO one of the businessman charged with ordering the hits against both Silva and Cardoso, Momad Assife Abdul Satar ("Nini"), employed him as an errand boy, using him to help smuggle correspondence in and out of the jail.
Muthemba told the court in the Cardoso murder trial that, during conversations in the jail, Nini Satar had admitted to his role in the assassination. He claimed that Satar had a hit list of people he wanted eliminated - including Albano Silva, and Antonio Frangoulis (then the head of the Maputo branch of the Criminal Investigation Police).
But this time Muthemba claimed he knew nothing about any plot against Silva, and that his testimony in 2002 had been a pack of lives. He claimed that, when he was transferred in 2001 from the BO to the Civil Prison (near Maputo city centre), he was visited by "Commander Cossa" (Zacarias Cossa, then head of the riot police), who told him that when questioned further about the case, he should not mention the name of Nyimpine Chissano, the oldest son of President Joaquim Chissano, or of the role played in the BO by members of the Presidential Guard.
The following night, Muthemba claimed, Cossa visited the prison again, this time accompanied by Silva. They impressed on him that he should blame the Cardoso murder on Nini Satar and his brother Ayob, and should not mention Nyimpine Chissano or the Presidential Guard.
Muthemba alleged that Silva told him "I'm going to f---- the monhes (derogatory slang for people of Asian descent - the Satars are of Pakistani origin). They tried to kill me and they killed Carlos Cardoso. If I were President of this country, I'd have them shot". Cossa and Silva then promised Muthemba his freedom if he would collaborate.
Silva, however, claims that this is just fiction, and that he never went to the jail to interrogate prisoners. To back him up, the prosecution intends to call Zacarias Cossa as a witness.
Muthemba said that Silva promised to send him a cell phone, so that they could keep in contact, and sure enough, later that night, a cell phone was slipped into his cell (though he did not see who delivered it). Silva then rang him up, he claimed, once again stressing the importance of not mentioning Nyimpine Chissano, and incriminating the Satars instead. He claimed there were several further phone conversations with Silva - these must have been extremely monotonous, since the only thing the lawyer said, according to Muthemba, was "don't mention Nyimpine Chissano".
In the 2002 trial, Muthemba also spoke of a smuggled cell phone. But then he alleged it was Nini Satar who ensured that a phone was smuggled into the civil prison. "I was always in phone contact with Nini", Muthemba said in 2002.
Asked about Silva's phone number, Muthemba could immediately recall, despite the passage of six years, two numbers supposedly used by Silva. But he could not recall the number of the mobile phone he was using - which is most convenient, since it means his story cannot be checked against the records kept by the cell phone company, M-Cel.
When the prosecution asked who else he had rung, Muthemba sad he had contacted his girl friends. What were their phone numbers ? He couldn't remember. In fact, the only numbers that had remained in his mind were those of Albano Silva.
And those numbers are the clearest sign that Muthemba had been coached in what to tell the court. For the numbers he gave consisted of seven digits, like all Mozambican mobile phone numbers today. But in 2001-02, all M-Cel numbers only had six digits. On this detail, those who coached Muthemba slipped up.
Tampering with Muthemba would have been simple enough. He is currently in the same jail as the Satars, and the date on which he would testify was known almost a week in advance.
Muthemba also seems to have forgotten exactly what he said during the Cardoso murder trial. Far from not mentioning Nyimpine Chissano, Muthemba said that Nini Satar, in their conversations in the BO, repeatedly talked about the President's son, and had claimed that Nyimpine was one of those who ordered Cardoso's death.
According to Muthemba's 2002 testimony, Satar at first believed he was protected by Nyimpine, "and he decided to mention Nyimpine's name in court because Nyimpine broke his promise that the case would never come to trial".
Muthemba's current story thus becomes incoherent. He was offered, he claims, his freedom in exchange for not mentioning Nyimpine. But in December 2002 he did mention Nyimpine - nonetheless, a month or two later he was released.
Muthemba said he did not know whether his supposed collaboration with Cossa and Silva got him out of jail. But by January 2003, he had no case to answer, because the file on the car theft had mysteriously disappeared. By then, Muthmeba had a lawyer who was presumably bright enough to point out that, since the file had vanished, his client must be released.
Muthemba's links with Nini Satar did not begin when they both found themselves in the BO. He was also jailed in the 1990s for suspected robbery, and Satar paid his bail (in 1997). Muthemba claimed that on this occasion the case came to court and he was acquitted.
Muthemba also told the court of alleged friction between Satar and Anibal dos Santos Junior ("Anibalzinho"), the man who recruited the death squad hired to murder Cardoso. The man who pulled the trigger, Carlitos Rachid, was in the cell next to Satar's, and, according to Muthemba, he complained that he had not been paid "for the work".
After Rachid repeatedly demanded "where's my money?" Satar told him that he should speak to Anibalzinho. When Nini Satar eventually came face to face with Anibalzinho, he told him "you have to pay your men". Anibalzinho's response, said Muthemba, was to punch Satar in the stomach.
Anibalzinho was not present in court to hear this story. Proceedings were held up for an hour because Anibalzinho refused to leave his cell in the Maputo City Police Command. The judge, Dimas Marroa, announced that the assassin was refusing to attend his own trial "because he feels weak, since he has not been eating meals".
The police insist that Anibalzinho is given the same food as everyone else in the cells - which he refuses to eat, on the grounds that "I've never eaten beans in my life", and "Your food is shit". The police refuse to allow food from Anibalzinho's family to enter his cell, since last year his relatives smuggled saw blades and other escape equipment in with the meals.
Marroa could have ordered Anibalzinho dragged into court, but he decided against. For this was probably what the assassin wanted, and the judge was determined to avoid "useless pieces of theatre".
"He can stay where he likes, as long as he's here on the last day of the trial", declared Marroa.
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