Kidnapping charges reinstated against Nini Satar – AIM report

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Kidnapping charges reinstated against Nini Satar – AIM report

8:06 CAT | 24 Sep 2018

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Maputo City prosecutors have reinstated kidnapping charges against Momad Assife Abdul Satar (“Nini”), according to a report in Friday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

These accusations are in addition to the charges of forgery, using a false name and corruption, which were filed against Satar shortly after he had been deported from Thailand, where he is believed to have live for the previous three years.

Satar is the country’s most notorious assassin. He is one of the three business people who, in January 2003, were found guilty of ordering the murder of the country’s foremost investigative journalist, and a former director of AIM, Carlos Cardoso.

He was sentenced to 24 years and six months imprisonment for his part in the murder, but was released on parole in 2014 after serving just half his sentence, on the grounds that he had shown “good behaviour” while in the Maputo top security prison.

In 2004, in a separate trial, he, along with several others, was found guilty of defrauding the country’s largest commercial bank, the BCM fraud, of the equivalent of 14 million dollars in 1996, on the eve of its privatisation. He was sentenced to a further 14 years – but he has never served a day of this sentence.

Police and prosecutors were angered by Satar’s early release. They were convinced that, far from being a model inmate, Satar had been active, from his prison cell, in planning other crimes, including the kidnappings of business people, mostly of Asian origin. Satar never had any problem in acquiring cell phones, even though such devices are not allowed inside prisons.

Satar was charged in a 2013 kidnap case – but the presiding judge scrubbed his name from the list of suspects. That same Maputo judge, Aderito Malhope, later in 2014, authorised Satar’s request to travel abroad, supposedly for medical treatment in India, though it was not stated what condition he suffered from which required treatment outside of Mozambique.

The Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) continued to investigate Satar’s connections with the kidnappings and his name was on the charge sheet in two cases opened in early 2017. During these investigations, said a PGR statement of April 2017, “it was found that the accused, Momad Assife Abdul Satar, formed a criminal organisation with the purpose of kidnapping Mozambican citizens, so that later large amounts of money in ransom could be demanded”.

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

From that moment he was a fugitive, and the Mozambican authorities enlisted the help of Interpol to track him down. He was eventually found living in Thailand, where he was arrested on 25 July. He was deported and is currently being held in the Maputo top security prison.

In Thailand he had used a false Mozambican passport in the name of Sahime Mohammed Aslam. This name belongs to a real person, who is Satar’s nephew. He is the son of Satar’s elder sister, Farida Satar, who fled from Mozambique rather than face trial on charges of fraud. It is believed that he bribed an official in the National Immigration Service (SENAMI, Cidalia dos Santos, to issue the fake passport. This was enough for prosecutors to charge him with corruption, forgery and using a false name.

In the new charge sheet, Satar is also accused of kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, theft, use of forbidden weapons, and membership of a criminal association.

The prosecutors allege that some of these crimes occurred while Satar was still serving his sentence for the Cardoso murders, and others after his release on parole. They claim that while he was on parole, Satar “restructured his criminal organisation, and came to rely on two direct collaborators, Jose Ali Coutinho and Edith Cylindo”.

Coutinho is in no position to testify against Satar, since he was murdered in April 2017. At this time, Coutinho was in custody, accused of leading the three man death squad that assassinated Marcelino Vilanculos, a Maputo prosecutor who had been investigating the kidnappings.

On 24 April 2017, Coutinho was apparently sprung from custody, when a group of four armed men, all wearing hoods, ambushed the police vehicle in which he was being transported. Three days later, Coutinho’s body was found in a shallow grave about 60 kilometres north of Maputo. The purpose of the ambush had not been to release Coutinho, but to silence him forever.

The second person named, Edith Cylindo, was also charged with involvement in the Vilanculos assassination, but was acquitted in January this year when the judge found there was not enough evidence to tie her to the killing.

The prosecution argued that she had provided the death squad with information on the movements of Vilanculos. The prosecution said she had been contacted by Coutinho, to help the death squad identify the victim. So not only did she follow the prosecutor’s car, but she also photographed Vilanculos, and gave the photos to Coutinho. According to the prosecution, after the murder Coutinho paid Cylindo 500,000 meticais (about 8,330 Us dollars). But with Coutinho dead, the prosecution was unable to convince the judge of this.

It is not yet clear whether the Maputo prosecutors have any fresh evidence tying Cylindo to Satar and the kidnappings that might justify re-arresting her.

Source: AIM