Maputo — A sister of Ayob and Momade Abdul Satar, two of the men accused of ordering the murder of Mozambique's top investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso, has denied claims that she is planning the flee the country.

The anonymous reports, cited in the latest issue of the independent weekly "Savana", claim that Rachida Abdul Satar plans to leave Mozambique and settle in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

It is believed that her parents, Abdul Satar Abdul Karim and Hawabay Abdul Latif, and another of her brothers, Asslam, are already living in Dubai. All three are wanted in Mozambique in connection with the 1996 fraud in which the equivalent of 14 million dollars was stolen from what was then the country's largest bank, the BCM.

Rachida Satar, the anonymous reports allege, intends to flee to avoid arrest for her supposed attempts to bribe Osvaldo Muianga, a witness in the Carlos Cardoso murder trial, in an attempt to persuade him to change his story and exonerate her brothers.

Interviewed by "Savana", Rachida Satar peremptorily denied these claims. "I see no need to run away", she said. "Apart from having my family and children here, I don't owe anything to anyone, and I've already been questioned in the Maputo City attorney's office".

"I went there. I replied to all the questions, and I was amazed when three days later "Domingo" (the Maputo Sunday paper) published defamatory information about me", she said.

"Domingo" published photocopies of cheques, allegedly used to bribe Muianga, via his mother, Fatima Razak. Rachida Satar admitted that the number on the cheques was that of her BCM account "but the rest is all manipulation". She denied that the handwriting and signature on the cheques were hers.

In any case, the cheques were "from a bank that no longer exists. More than 18 months ago the BCM cheques were replaced by BIM ones".

Satar's timing is wrong: it was on 12 October 2001 that the shareholders of the BCM and BIM (International Bank of Mozambique) agreed to merge the two banks, and BCM cheques remained valid for some time after the merger decision.

The four cheques allegedly signed by Rachida Satar, and published in "Domingo" were given to Muianga's mother between February and May 2002. The four cheques amount to 1.68 billion meticais (about 70,000 dollars).

Rachida Satar claimed that the cheques were just "manipulations", intended "to strike in any way at the entire Satar family".