Maputo — Judge Augusto Paulino, who is hearing the Carlos Cardoso murder case, on Thursday suggested that the Unicambios foreign exchange bureau, owned by Ayob Abdul Satar, one of those accused of ordering the murder, should have been closed down.

Ayob Satar, asked by the court to explain Unicambios finances, repeatedly boasted that his company was entirely legal, that it was recognised by the Finance Ministry, and that it had its books in order.

"This is a company that is properly organised", declared Satar. "And it's still open, even though its majority shareholder is in jail. I'm proud of this company".

"I don't know whether it should still be open", interrupted judge Paulino acidly.

Much of this second interrogation of Ayob hinged on whether his brother, the loan shark Momade Assife Abdul Satar ("Nini") could take large sums from Unicambios without Ayob's authorisation.

Ayob declared that this was absolutely impossible, since every item of expenditure in excess of five million meticais (about 200 US dollars) required his personal approval.

But he admitted that, although he owns 95 per cent of the company, it was his brother Nini who was responsible for the day- to-day management of Unicambios. Every afternoon it was Nini Satar who checked the takings of the three Unicambios branches.

"He checked how much had been bought and how much sold, and submitted it to me for approval", said Ayob.

"So Nini controlled himself", remarked Paulino.

Ayob claimed that he did not know the former financial director of the Polana Casino, Philip Nevitt, and that the Casino had never done business on any significant scale with Unicambios.

Yet on Monday Nevitt had testified under oath to huge loans from Unicambios to the Casino, arranged under a "verbal contract" between the then general manager of the casino, Gary Rouper, and Nini Satar. He recalled Nini once delivering a sackful of money to Rouper, containing "hundreds of millions of meticais". As far as Nevitt was concerned "Nini and Unicambios were one and the same thing".

But Ayob insisted that the money lent to the Casino came from his brother's own funds, and had nothing to do with Unicambios. Yet the postdated cheques from the Casino (totalling seven billion meticais), signed by Nevitt and Rouper, are made out, not to Nini, but to Ayob.

"It's not my money, it belongs to Nini", he insisted. "My name is there, but that wasn't my wish. Those cheques were never in my possession, they belonged to Nini".

Ayob argued that the cheques backed up the story spun by prosecution witness Osvaldo Muianga ("Dudu"), when he retracted his original statement of 2001, which claimed that the murder of Cardoso had been planned at meetings in the Rovuma Hotel attended by both Satar brothers.

Muianga's retraction alleged that he made up the Rovuma story at the instigation of Rouper, because of the Casino's debts to Nini Satar. Ayob submitted the Casino's cheques in evidence, arguing that they backed up Muianga's retraction.

However, there are other cheques (amounting to the equivalent of 70,000 dollars) paid by Satar's sister, Rachida, to Muianga's mother, Fatima Razak, which look like a bribe to persuade Muianga to change his statement.

Furthermore, Muianga retracted his retraction, which he now claims was made under pressure. On the witness stand, he insisted that conspiratorial meetings in the Rovuma did take place.

The simplest explanation for the fact that the Casino cheques are made out to Ayob, not Nini, is that in reality the money came from Unicambios.

Ayob tried to distance himself from many of the other people who have featured in this case. He said he had never met Nyimpine Chissano, the oldest son of President Joaquim Chissano, his brother N'naite, or his business partner, Apolinario Pateguana.

The three own the travel agency and car hire firm, Expresso Tours, and although there is strong evidence of repeated business dealings between Expresso Tours and Unicambios, Ayob said he had no knowledge of any ties between the two companies.

Businesswoman Candida Cossa is one of the links between Expresso Tours and Unicambios - but Ayob said she was just a casual acquaintance, who came to Unicambios to visit his brother.

But Cossa claimed that she had been threatened by both Satar brothers in order to change a statement she had made to the police concerning a cheque signed by Satar, for over 50,000 dollars that had bounced.

Ayob stuck to his original claim of December that this part of Candida Cossa's testimony was entirely false.

She had claimed that the Satars effectively kidnapped her, forced her to accompany them to a room in the Rovuma hotel, where Nini locked the door and told her one of her children would be abducted unless she withdrew her complaint about the bouncing cheque.

But, just like his brother, Ayob denied ever visiting any part of the Rovuma Hotel, apart from its ground floor shopping centre.