Maputo — The fraud whereby the equivalent of 14 million US dollars was stolen from Mozambique's largest bank, the BCM, was one of the main concerns of murdered journalist Carlos Cardoso in the last months of his life, one of his closest colleagues, Marcelo Mosse, testified on Tuesday.

Mosse had been called to give evidence by Eduardo Jorge, defence lawyer of Momade Assife Abdul Satar ("Nini"), one of those charged with ordering Cardoso's murder in November 2000.

Satar is one of those who opened the accounts used to drain the money from the BCM immediately prior to its privatisation in 1996. The prosecution argues that Cardoso's campaigning work on the BCM fraud was a motive for Nini Satar and his associates to eliminate Cardoso.

Mosse was Cardoso's right-hand man on the paper he owned and edited, "Metical", and took over as editor after Cardoso's death.

Presumably Jorge called Mosse to the witness stand in the hope that he would provide some motive for the murder other than the BCM fraud.

But when he asked Mosse to list the important issues that concerned Cardoso in 2000, the first thing that sprang to his mind was the BCM. "One of the things which greatly concerned Cardoso was the fraud at the BCM", he said. "He had the strong conviction that if this case were to come to trial, this would help revive credibility in the judicial system".

Pressed to list other matters that were high up on Cardoso's agenda, Mosse mentioned his concerns as a member of the elected Maputo municipal assembly - particularly the illicit acquisition of land in Maputo, and the extravagant purchase of vehicles planned in the 2001 municipal budget.

Asked if Cardoso had changed his mind about the BCM fraud after Vicente Ramaya, another of the accused and a former BCM branch manager, had replied in mid-May 2000 to one of his articles, Mosse said he doubted very much whether Ramaya had altered Cardoso's opinion.

"Throughout 2000 he was producing editorials demanding that the case go to trial", Mosse pointed out. He had even urged the Public Prosecutor's Office to adopt as its own the charge sheet drawn up by the BCM's lawyer, Albano Silva. Less than a fortnight before his death, Cardoso had written another editorial along those lines, Mosse recalled.

It was true that Cardoso accepted Ramaya's suggestion for a public debate on the BCM case. "I think he believed a public debate would clarify matters", said Mosse. "It would clarify the way in which evidence had been hidden, and there was deliberate disorganisation of the case file. He was convinced that a public debate could clarify whether the attorneys involved had taken bribes. It might also help in understanding other frauds in the financial system".

(Cardoso had repeatedly attacked the Attorney-General's Office for its handling of the BCM case, and the apparent collaboration of leading attorneys with the Satars and Ramaya.) Asked whether Cardoso had felt that his life was threatened, Mosse replied that Cardoso was "fearless".

"He did express shock at various facts to do with corruption and with organised crime", he added. "He felt shocked, not threatened".