Vilanculos murder: Assassin sentenced to 24 years – AIM report

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Vilanculos murder: Assassin sentenced to 24 years – AIM report

8:31 CAT | 29 Jan 2018

Photo: Deutsche Welle

The Maputo Provincial Court, sitting in the city of Matola, on Friday sentenced Amad Antonio Mabunda to 24 years imprisonment for the murder of prominent prosecutor, Marcelino Vilanculos, in April 2016.

Although Vilanculos lived in Matola, he worked in the Maputo City branch of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, where he was one of the key prosecutors working on the spate of kidnappings of wealthy business people that had struck the city since late 2011.

The Matola court accepted the prosecution case that the motive for the murder was to obstruct the investigations into the kidnappings.

The three man death squad that murdered Vilanculos was led by Jose Ali Coutinho. He recruited the two others, Mabunda, who fired the fatal shots, and Abdul Tembe, who drove the car. The three met each other when they were all serving terms in the Maputo top security prison.

All three were arrested – but by the time of the trial only Mabunda was still in custody. Tembe escaped from Maputo Central Prison during a thunderstorm on the night of 24 October 2016. The director of the prison, Castigo Machaieie, and eight prison guards were detained on suspicion of facilitating Tembe’s escape. Tembe has not been seen since the escape.

On 24 April last year Coutinho was sprung from custody. Coutinho and a second prisoner, Alfredo Muchanga (not believed to be associated with the Vilankulos murder) were taken from their cells in the Maputo City Police Command, and driven towards a Maputo police station, where they were to be interrogated in connection with alleged attempts to sabotage the security system in their cells. Before they could reach their destination, the vehicle, belonging to the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), was ambushed by a group of four armed men, all wearing hoods.

The assailants fired more than 20 shots, mostly at the tyres of the police vehicle, immobilizing it. The two policemen in the car, a Land Cruiser, fled for their lives, allowing the gangsters to rescue Coutinho and Muchanga. But it soon turned out that this was not an escape at all: three days later, the bodies of Coutinho and Muchanga were found in a shallow grave in Moamba district, about 60 kilometres north of Maputo. Coutninho had not been released – he had been silenced.

An alleged accomplice in the murder, Edith D`Campta da Câmara Cylindo, was also tried. Although this was technically a separate case, the Maputo Provincial Court also delivered its verdict on Friday. Judge Samuel Artur found there was not enough evidence to tie Cylindo to the assassination.

The prosecution had 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 8,400 US dollars).

The judge, however, ruled that the prosecution had not produced enough evidence to convict Cylindo.

Notably absent from the trial was whoever gave Coutinho his orders. The prosecutors believed that Coutinho was closely linked with the country’s most notorious killer, Momad Assife Abdul Satar (better known as “Nini”), and that both were connected to the wave of kidnappings.

In January 2003, the Maputo City Court found that Satar was one of the three business figures who had ordered the murder, in November 2000, of the country’s foremost investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso. Satar was sentenced to 24 years and six months imprisonment, but was released on parole in 2014 after serving just half his sentence, on the ground that he had shown “good behaviour” while in the Maputo top security prison.

Police and prosecutors, however, 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. 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, though it was not stated what condition he suffered from which required treatment outside of Mozambique.

He was supposed to go to India, but the parolee never set foot in that country. Supposedly, he changed his mind and went to London instead. He has never returned to Mozambique.

The Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) continued to investigate Satar’s connections with the kidnappings and his name is on the charge sheet in two cases opened in early 2017. The PGR only went public with this information after Coutinho was sprung from police custody and then murdered.

During the latest investigations, said a PGR statement of April 2017, “it was found that the accused, Momad Assife Abdul Satar, formed a criminal organization with the purpose of kidnapping Mozambican citizens, so that later large amounts of money in ransom could be demanded”.

To this end, said the PGR, he formed “a criminal alliance” with Coutinho, and with Edith da Camara Cylindo.

In light of these findings, the PGR issued an international arrest warrant, and asked the Maputo City Court to revoke Satar’s parole status. The City Court agreed and cancelled Satar’s parole in a dispatch dated 21 April. From that moment, Satar became a fugitive. If he is returned to Maputo and found guilty of any of the crime of which he is now accused, he will also have to serve the remainder of his sentence for the Cardoso murder.

Source: AIM