Maputo, Mozambique — At least one of the nine suspects arrested in connection with the murder last November of Carlos Cardoso, editor of the independent newsheet "Metical", has confessed to the crime.

According to Thursday's issue of "Metical", the suspect, Manuel Fernandes (known by the nickname "the dwarf") went with members of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC) on Wednesday to the scene of the assassination, to reconstitute the crime.

Fernandes was in handcuffs and guarded by heavily armed police. Also present were defence lawyers, and the lawyer representing the Cardoso family, Lucinda Cruz.

During the reconstruction, the confessed killer retraced the steps of the murderers from the point where they had gathered, to the scene of the shooting on Avenida Martires da Machava, just a couple of minutes drive from the "Metical" office, to the place where they separated.

According to the mozambican news agenc, Fernandes described how the murderers had watched Cardoso leave the office, and had then followed him, ambushing his car in front of the one the main Maputo parks, and then opening fire against the defenseless editor with an AK-47 assault rifle.

"Metical" cites a police source as saying that the description given by Fernandes coincides with that of eye- witnesses.

Fernandes is one of six people detained for carrying out the murder. They are alleged to have acted on the instructions of people named as among those responsible for the country's largest bank fraud, involving the theft of 144 billion meticais (14 billion dollars at the exchange rate of the time) from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM) in 1996.

This was a case that Cardoso had followed relentlessly, insisting that the accused be brought to justice.

Those now charged with ordering Cardoso's murder are Vicente Ramaya, manager of the BCM branch where the fraud took place, one of the main beneficiaries of the fraud, businessman Momade Assife Abdul Satar, and his brother Ayob Abdul Satar.