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O País
Yesterday, the Judicial Court of the city of Beira saw the beginning of the trial of six suspects accused of facilitating the escape of 17 inmates from Beira Central Prison at the beginning of August last year, three of whom were allegedly involved in the theft of 27 million meticais from a Millenium BIM bank branch, and were due to be tried the week they escaped.
Of the six accused in case number 479/2017, five are prison guards who were on duty on the day of the escape, which involved two vehicles and a firearm. The driver of one of the vehicles, who was detained the same day by a prison guard with the help of members of the public, is among the defendants.
According to the prosecution, the five prison guards, António Magube, Lucas Cobra, António Verimo, Helton Nenias and Miguel Chequessene, had contact with the two defendants, Marone and Manucho, implicated in the Millennium BIM robbery, which culminated in the smuggling into one of the cells of the firearm that was used in the escape.
The court first heard the testimony of the driver, Manuel dos Santos. He confirmed that he had been in contact with António Veremo and Lucas Cobra, both prison guards, having delivered to them plastic bags containing 3,300 meticais for one of the fugitives.
Dos Santos also said that he had made telephone calls to a woman named Nene, the sister of Moniz Bambu, another of those involved in the Millennium BIM robbery, who received 50,000 meticais for two prison guards officers identified only as James and Ivan.
According to Dos Santos, this same lady told him a few days later to take the rental car he was driving at the time of his arrest to Beira Central Jail to take Moniz Bambo to Quelimane.
Dos Santos said that, because of the threats he had received, at no point in the preparatory stages did he name the officers James and Ivan, individuals with whom he kept in contact with to facilitate the escape of the prisoners.
The court also heard from Antonio Magube, another prison guard, who was on duty on the day of the escape of the 17 inmates. Magube said that he handed over to his colleague Lucas Cobra the keys to open the cells to allow the inmates to leave the area they had been cleaning in the morning and transporting water to the kitchen and cells. He added that around 7:00 a.m., when he was outside the prison attending to relatives who came to the penitentiary every morning to deliver breakfast, he was threatened by Manucho and Marone, the two prisoners implicated in the Millenium BIM case, who pointed a gun at him, demanding that he surrender his own. Magube says that he obeyed, whereupon they broke down the door and he realized that there was a mass escape of inmates.
Lucas Cobra, a prison guard and one of the co-defendants, confirmed to the court that he had opened two cells, one maximum security, which should not have been opened, and where one of the suspects in the Millenium BIM robbery was held. Cobra said that, later, he handed over the keys to one of the inmates for him to let out the cleaning detail, but did not know when the other five cells, from where the other inmates escaped, were opened.
After hearing these confessions, the judge ordered the withdrawal of Lucas Cobra’s bail, he being immediately detained as a danger to the course of the investigation.
The trial continues on March 13 with more co-defendants and witness testimony.
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