Mozambique: PGR arrests five suspects of plotting to murder Nini Satar – AIM

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Mozambique: PGR arrests five suspects of plotting to murder Nini Satar – AIM

3:55 CAT | 12 Jul 2022

FILE - Nini Satar is imprisoned in the BO. [File photo: MMO]

The Mozambican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) has confirmed that there was indeed a conspiracy earlier this year to murder the notorious assassin and loan shark Momad Assife Abdul Satar (“Nini”) inside the Maputo top security prison (known as BO).

According to a Monday press release from the PGR, the plot against Satar’s life involved six people. Five of them – two members of the Mozambican police (PRM) and three inmates of the BO – have been charged with criminal conspiracy and the possession of prohibited weapons. The two police are members of the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR), the Mozambican equivalent of the riot police. Their names have not ben released.

“They orchestrated a plan to take Nini Satar’s life, in exchange for payment of 40 million meticais (625,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate)”, says the PGR release.

The sixth suspect has fled and his current whereabouts are unknown. A separate case will be opened against him.

Nini Satar is imprisoned in the BO serving the remainder of a sentence for his involvement in the murder of Mozambique’s top investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso, in November 2000. He was sentenced to 24 years and six months for his part in the murder, but in 2014, he was granted parole after serving only half his sentence.

In late 2014, Judge Adérito Malhope of the Maputo City Court authorized Satar’s request to travel abroad for medical treatment in India, although it was not stated what condition he was suffering from or why he needed treatment outside of Mozambique.

The PGR, which strongly opposed Satar’s conditional release, continued to investigate his activities and found that he was linked to the wave of kidnappings of businessmen in Mozambican cities. His name was mentioned in the files of two kidnap cases opened in early 2017.

In light of these findings, the Attorney General issued an international arrest warrant and the Maputo City Court revoked Satar’s parole status.

From that point on, he became a fugitive, and the Mozambican authorities enlisted the help of Interpol to track him down. He was eventually found in Thailand, where he was arrested in July 2018. He was deported and is currently being held in the BO.

It is not yet known who ordered the attempt on Satar’s life. But the Abdul Satar family has many enemies, thanks to internecine disputes in the world of organized crime. His brother, Ayob Abdul Satar, who also served a prison sentence for his role in the Cardoso murder, was shot dead in the Pakistani city of Karachi in July 2014.

Watch the Miramar report.