Maputo, Mozambique — The lawyer for Ayob Abdul Satar and Momade Assife Abdul Satar, the two businessmen accused of ordering the murder of Mozambique's best known journalist Carlos Cardoso last November, said that their detention is illegal.

Tuesday's issue of "Metical", the independent paper once owned and edited by Cardoso, reported that the lawyer, Espirito Santo, is arguing that the police had up until Sunday to formalise the detention of his clients.

Since they failed to do so, the detention is now illegal, Santo said, according to Metical.

The lawyer also complained that the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC) is keeping him in the dark as regards the case.

"I can't communicate with the relevant people in PIC, and I'm beginning to note that a series of illegalities are being committed," he said.

He added: "We don't know who has the case file, and I can't talk with my clients. The law says that accused persons can be held incommunicado, but never from their lawyers."

The Abdul Satar brothers, together with former bank manager Vicente Ramaya, were arrested last Tuesday and were put into preventive custody.

The process is supposed to be formalised by the investigating magistrate within 48 hours. The time limit can, however, be extended by a further 72 hours, if the police can show good cause to do so.

PIC inspector Antonio Frangules admitted that there had been "a slight delay" in the procedural matter concerning the detentions.

Such "slight delays" play into the hands of the skilled lawyers whom the Abdul Satar brothers can afford to hire, and procedural irregularities have cost the police many other cases in the past.