Santos Junior (Anibalzinho) had been tried in absentia, because he has been illicitly released from the “top security” prison. Anibalzinho was detained by the South African police on January 30, 2003, and repatriated to Mozambique the following day, just hours after the verdict. He appealed, and in December 2004 the Supreme Court ruled that all accused persons tried in absentia and sentenced to jail terms of two years or more have the right to a retrial. By the time of the ruling, he had been allowed to escape from the “top security” prison for a second time; he was repatriated last year from Canada. At the original trial, held from November 2002 to January 2003, Anibalzinho and five others were found guilty of the assassination and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Two members of the death squad, the lookout, Manuel Fernandes, and the man who pulled the trigger, Carlitos Rachid, made full confessions. They described how Anibalzinho had recruited them, and had driven the car, a stolen Citi-Golf, used in the murder. Cardoso was killed on 22 November 2000. · ALERT Date: October 19, 2005 Persons/Institutions: Alvarito de Carvalho Violation: Threatened On October 19 2005, journalist Alvarito de Carvalho was questioned by an audience at the Maputo Attorney’s offices on the process Nr 756/PGC 2005, where he stands accused by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is accusing de Carvalho of misrepresenting it in a newspaper article which alleged that it was knowingly delaying the investigation into the cause of a tragic railway accident that occurred in Tenga, in the district of Moamba, in the southern Maputo province in the early hours of May 25, 2002. More than 200 persons, who were traveling in the train from Ressano Garcia to Maputo, died in the accident. The Supreme Court felt offended by the article in question allegedly because de Carvalho wrote that “the justice system is trying implicitly to pass to the public the idea that the Tenga accident was no more than a natural disaster”. The article in question reads that “the shelving” (referring to the suspicion that the Supreme Court had shelved the sentence) is aimed at preventing the sentencing of the Mozambique Railways and Ports company (CFM) and, as a consequence, delaying the payment of compensation to the relatives of the victims of the accident. · ALERT Date: July 07, 2005 Persons/Institutions: Antonio Chimundo, Jorge Ataid Violation: Detained, censored On July 07 2005, journalist Antonio Chimundo and photographic reporter Jorge Ataide, both from Diario de Mocambique, were arrested in Sofala province by two Rapid Reaction Force (FIR) agents for allegedly photographing them without authorization. Whilst the journalists were eventually released, the agents confiscated their digital camera and erased the images they had taken. · ALERT Date: June 28, 2005 Persons/Institutions: Luis Muianga, Raul Senda Violation: Beaten On June 28 2005, Zambeze weekly newspaper photojournalist Luis Muianga was brutally beaten by a group of municipal police while working in downtown Maputo. Muianga and colleague Raul Senda were working on a story about an impending taxi fare So This Is Democracy? 2005 -84- Media Institute of Southern Africa