Details emerge on police car attack, identities of ‘rescued’ prisioners – Photos

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Details emerge on police car attack, identities of ‘rescued’ prisioners – Photos

3:41 CAT | 25 Apr 2017

CRV Magazine

At around 11 o’clock this Monday (April 24), armed bandits travelling in a car with fake number plates blocked a vehicle belonging to the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) – former Criminal Investigation Police (PIC) – in the heart of the capital of Mozambique, fired a number of shots and rescued two prisoners who were being transferred to a police station.

The individuals rescued and still currently at large, were serving prison sentences for kidnapping and murder. According to A Verdade, one of the fugitives was accused of having commissioned the murder of prosecutor Marcelino Vilanculos.

The well thought-out operation occurred opposite the headquarters of the Tax Authority, ten metres from the Attorney General’s Office and the Supreme Court and only hundreds of metres from the Prime Minister’s office as well as the Police Command of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) in the city of Maputo and SERNIC.

The alleged offenders, four in number, were driving a light-coloured Toyota Runx. With several shots, they immobilised the SERNIC car, registration PRM-01-2-49, in which four police officers were travelling.

According to police spokesman Orlando Modumane, the prisoners rescued were being transported to the 1st precinct police station at Rua Consiglieri Pedroso, for an interrogation about an alleged prison escape attempt.

Eyewitnesses reported that the gunmen shot the back door of the police car and removed two of four detainees who were being transported inside.

The episode, which played out like Hollywood movie shoot, left bystanders aghast. Fearing for their lives, some sought protection, but fortunately there were no casualties.

Strangely, another police vehicle escorting the prisoners, was held up at the “33 Andares” [33-storey building] traffic light during the rescue.

The gunmen and their rescued comrades left the scene without encountering any opposition, and are now at an unknown location, despite downtown Maputo’s always thick and slow-moving traffic.

Spokesman Modumane revealed in the afternoon, that the two fugitives were Jose Ali Coutinho and Alfredo José Muchanga, both sentenced to “lengthy prison sentences for crimes of kidnapping and homicide, in addition to many other crimes against property”.

With its traditional efficiency, the police still did not have photographs of the two fugitives for dissemination hours after the spectacular escape. “We are working with the Machava Maximum Security Penitentiary where the individuals were held,” spokesman the said.

Meanwhile, @Verdade has learned that José Ali Coutinho is named by the authorities as the “head of one of the kidnapping gangs” and is accused of having commissioned the murder of prosecutor Marcelino Vilanculo.

One of Coutinho’s accomplices is Abdul Afonso Tembe, who also escaped from Maputo Penitentiary, with the help of members of the management and a prison guard, according to the PGR.

According to the PGR’s annual report presented last week to the Assembly of the Republic, three defendants in the murder of prosecutor Marcelino Vilanculo were charged, one of whom, in custody at Maputo Provincial Prison, escaped.

International arrest warrants have been issued via Interpol and the police are also trying to recapture him. In addition to the arrest of those who facilitated the escape of the presumed murderer, a lady is also being detained. Two other suspects “are currently at large”.

Coutinho’s escape therefore not only represents another suspect in the murder of Prosecutor Vilaculos still at large; it also means, probably, that the clarification of the case will be even more complicated.

See the photo broght by CRV Magazine below:

Foto de Magazine CRV.