Maputo — Finally, the two most dramatic court cases in Mozambican history, the murder of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso in 2000, and the associated bank fraud that siphoned the equivalent of 14 million US dollars out of the Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM) in 1996, are over, and all that remains is for the convicted criminals to pay the compensation ordered by the courts.

Every avenue of appeal, used exhaustively by the criminals' lawyers, is now closed. From a legal source AIM has learnt that the rulings by the Supreme Court rejecting the appeals by the accused have now returned to the Maputo City Court, which must implement the full sentence.

The Cardoso murder case returned from the Supreme Court to the City Court on 23 September and the BCM case on 7 October.

The Cardoso murder trial was held from November 2002 to January 2003, and the judge, Augusto Paulino, found all six accused guilty. Those who ordered the crime were a former BCM branch manager, Vicente Ramaya , the notorious loan shark Momade Assif "Nini" Abdul Satar, and his brother, the owner of the now defunct foreign exchange bureau Unicambios, Ayob Abdul Satar. They were all sentenced to between 23 and 24 years imprisonment.

They had hired a well-known car thief, Anibal dos Santos Junior ("Anibalzinho"), to recruit the death squad that would eliminate Cardoso. The man who pulled the trigger, Carlitos Rachid, and the lookout, Manuel Fernandes ("Escurinho"), were sentenced to 23 years and six months. Telling slightly in their favour was that they had both confessed to their part in the crime.

Anibalzinho, who had escaped before the trial, was sentenced in absentia to 28 years and six months. When he was re-arrested his lawyer demanded a retrial. This was a bad move - the second judge, Dimas Marroa, agreed with Paulino that Anibalzinho was a "habitual delinquent", and increased the sentence to 30 years.

In February 2007, the Supreme Court rejected the appeals from the Satar brothers and Ramaya. But there were further moves by their lawyers, including appeals to the Supreme Court plenary against the decision of the Supreme Court criminal section. But all points of law have now been decided, the case is definitively closed, and all that remains is for the criminals to pay up.

Paulino had ordered the six to pay compensation of 14 billion old meticais (588,000 US dollars at the exchange rate of the time) to Cardoso's two children, Ibo and Milena, and 500 million old meticais to Cardoso's driver, Carlos Manjate, who was severely injured in the shooting and has not been able to work since.

The BCM fraud was the motive for Cardoso's assassination. He had named the Satar brothers and Ramaya as the main architects of the fraud in his daily newssheet "Metical", and had worked with the BCM's lawyer, Albano Silva, to bring the case to justice, against lethargy and corruption in the public prosecutor's office.

The BCM case finally came to court in 2004, and judge Achirafo Abubakar Abdul sentenced Nini Satar and Ramaya to 14 and 12 years imprisonment for their part in the fraud. Five of their accomplices were sentenced to between eight and 10 years - but these sentences were suspended while the appeal would its way through the Supreme Court.

Again, the appeals process was lengthy - but this year the Supreme Court threw all the appeals out, reaffirming Achirafo's verdict and sentence.

Now the City Court must order the re-arrest and imprisonment of those whose sentences were suspended. They are:

Yasser Mohamed: a close friend of Nini Satar, who held one of the fraudulent accounts opened at Ramaya's BCM branch through which the money was drained.

Henriques Cruz: an employee of the Satar family, who opened an account in a Nampula BCM branch that was used solely for fraudulent purposes, issuing some of the dud cheques that were turned into real money when they reached Ramaya's branch.

Sheraz Banu: the girlfriend of Asslam Satar, Nini and Ayob's brother, who fled the country with his share of the loot and is currently living in Pakistan. Banu opened another fraudulent account, this time in Tete, used to supply dud cheques that would pass through Ramaya's branch, where they were credited as real money to the Satar accounts.

Brito and Isaltina Companhia: other suppliers of worthless cheques that Ramaya could convert into real money.

The problem with re-arresting these people is that some of them are no longer in the country. Achirafo did not take the precaution of ordering them to surrender their passports. Banu's lawyer, Maximo Dias, cheerfully told AIM earlier this year that his client has left Mozambique.

Those involved in the fraud were ordered to repay the 144 billion old meticais (14 million US dollars at 1996 exchange rates) stolen from the BCM. The bank, in its current incarnation as the Millennium-BIM (a change of name, but legally the same bank), must now demand the money - and pay it on to the state. For when the fraud occurred the BCM was being privatised - and the new owners were none too pleased to discover a 14 million dollar hole. To ensure that the privatization went ahead, the state had to fill the hole.

The murderers and fraudsters have now been notified that the appeal procedures have reached the end, and the sentences have been confirmed. They have 30 days, from the date of notification, to pay the compensation voluntarily. If they fail to do so, the lawyers for their victims may set in motion the legal mechanisms to collect the money coercively.

But where will the money, for both the Cardoso and BCM compensation, come from? It was no secret, at the time of the murder trial, that members of the Abdul Satar family still at large were busy selling off assets, or transferring them into the names of other people.

So when the lawyers come calling for the money, they may find that there is nothing left. However, they have one trump card. Prisoners who have shown good behaviour can be conditionally released once they have served half their sentences - but not if they still owe money to their victims.

So if the Ramaya, the Satars and their accomplices do not pay the compensation ordered by Paulino and Achirafo, they will be obliged to serve their full sentences.

And in the cases of Ramaya and Nini Satar, those sentences are about to get longer. For the Maputo City Court must now consolidate the sentences for the murder and the fraud. They cannot simply be added together, since the usual maximum sentence in Mozambique is 30 years. But legal sources contacted by AIM think it quite likely that the two will receive the full 30 years.

Very occasionally, courts can order the maximum sentence increased to 33 years, in the case of criminals regarded as particularly dangerous. This could happen with Anibalzinho who has now escaped three times, but has been re-arrested on each occasion. He has shown not the slightest repentance for his crimes.