Mozambique: Accused claim Satar staged his own attempted murder – AIM

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Mozambique: Accused claim Satar staged his own attempted murder – AIM

8:58 CAT | 24 Apr 2023

Photo: O País

Some of those accused of conspiring to murder notorious loan shark Momade Assife Abdul Satar (better known as Nini) claim that there was never any plot, and Satar simulated his own attempted assassination.

The trial of the supposed conspirators began on Wednesday on the grounds of the Maputo top security prison, where Satar is incarcerated, serving a sentence for his part in ordering the murder, in 2000, of the country’s top investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso.

According to the prosecution, the plot to assassinate Satar dated from February 2022, and involved three of Satar’s fellow inmates at the top security jail (Leao Wilson, Damiao Mula and Antonio Chicuamba) and three members of the police Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR – the Mozambican equivalent of the riot police), namely Lenine Macamo, Jose Ngulela and Edson Muyanga. Macamo is currently on the run, and is being tried in absentia.

The three prisoners were serving sentences for the crimes of kidnapping and possession of forbidden weapons.

The Public Prosectutor’s Office claimed that the three police officers approached Leao Wilson, and asked him to murder Satar by putting poison in his water.

The prosecutor told the court that “Nini was to be killed by a substance to be acquired in Nampula”. But there were delays and so the would-be assassins “considered the possibility of using a firearm. But a firearm would make a lot of noise and draw too much attention”.

One of those contacted by Wilson to assist in the murder, Carlos Zavala, happened to be a friend of Nini Satar, and tipped him off to the supposed plot.

Satar then asked Zavala to produce evidence. He came up with incriminating recordings in which two of the police officers, Jose Ngulela and Edson Muyanga, supposedly made death threats and claimed that senior state officials (including President Filipe Nyusi and Attorney-General Beatriz Buchili) were involved in the plot.

The court questioned Ngulela and Muyanga on Thursday. They denied everything, and said that Satar had orchestrated the entire scheme.

Ngulela said Satar’s motive for the simulation was his hunger for publicity. He was no longer talked about in the Mozambican press – but he also “wanted to stir up agitation, in order to transmit the idea that the prison was not safe”.

Ngulela and Muyanga claimed that the fugitive Macamo had schemed with Satar to design the supposed murder plot.

The trial continues on Monday, and Satar himself is expected to give evidence.

Source: AIM