Nine prison guards arrested over escape

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Nine prison guards arrested over escape

6:11 CAT | 08 Dec 2016

MMO (File photo) / Maputo Provincial Penitentiary, in Machava

The Maputo Provincial Attorney’s Office has ordered the arrest of nine prison managers and guards suspected of colluding in the escape of one of the men charged with the murder or senior prosecutor Marcelino Vilanculo.

According to a Tuesday press release from the Provincial Attorney’s Office, the nine were detained because there was “proven risk of disturbing the investigations” and because the Public Prosecutor’s Office concluded there were strong signs of corruption and complicity in the escape. The prison authorities had reached the same conclusion.

The suspected murderer, Abdul Tembe, was the man whom prosecutors say drove the car used in the assassination of Vilanculo on 11 April.

Tembe escaped from Maputo Central Prison on the night of 24 October. On that night a violent thunderstorm hit Maputo, and the noise of the storm might have made it easier for Tembe to cut through the bars in his cell window without being heard.

Tembe was initially held in the cells of the Maputo Police Command, in the centre of the city, but was moved to the Central Prison, in the suburb of Machava, supposedly to protect him, since the other two accused, Amade Antonio and Jose Coutinho, had made threats against him. This makes little sense, since security at the Police Command is much tighter than at the Central Prison.

Antonio and Coutinho are still incarcerated at the Police Command. According to a report carried last month by the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, they had allegedly been putting pressure on Tembe to change the statements he had made shortly after the trio were arrested.

The director of the Central Prison, Castigo Machaieie, said that Tembe had somehow acquired a sharp instrument to cut through the cell bars, and then slipped past the prison guards. A commission of inquiry was set up to investigate the escape.

Vilanculo was shot dead on 11 April outside his home in Malhampsene neighbourhood in the southern city of Matola. He had been returning home from the Maputo City Attorney’s office, where he worked.

As for motive, it is known that one of the cases in Vilankulo’s hands was that of Danish Satar, accused of involvement in the wave of kidnappings of business people, usually of Asian descent, which has plagued Mozambican cities since late 2011. The kidnappings are a lucrative business, with ransoms running into millions of dollars.

Source: AIM