US embassy cable - 05MAPUTO1555

UNCLAS MAPUTO 001555 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S: HTREGER 
NSC:  CCOURVILLE 
 
E.O. 1295: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM, CKOR, PGOV, MZ 
SUBJECT:  MOZAMBIQUE: FIVE ESCAPE FROM MAPUTO POLICE 
COMMAND; WAS ANIBALZINHO TO HAVE FLED TOO? 
 
 
1. (U) On November 26 five prisoners, including a suspect 
in the October 21 murder of then-Director of the Maputo 
Central Prison Jorge Microsse (ref A), escaped from 
high-security holding cells at the Maputo City Police 
Command, according to media sources.  On November 30 
independent daily fax news sheet "MediaFAX" reported 
that the breakout was part of an unsuccessful 
operation to free Anibal dos Santos Junior (Anibalzinho), 
the man convicted of leading the group responsible for 
the November 2000 murder of Mozambique's foremost 
investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso.  In 2003 
Anibalzinho was tried and convicted in absentia for 
his role in the Cardoso murder; he had escaped from 
Maputo's Maximum Security Prison and was at large at 
the time of the trial. 
Captured and returned to jail, in May 2004 Anibalzinho 
made a second escape from the same maximum security 
facility.  He was eventually arrested in Canada and 
deported back to Mozambique in January 2005 (ref B). 
Since then he has been held at the Maputo City Police Command, 
considered a more secure facility, awaiting a retrial 
(the Supreme Court overruled the in abstentia 
conviction on a technicality).  This alleged escape 
attempt occurred just days before the December 1 start 
of Anibalzinho's retrial. 
 
2. (SBU) A police communiqui issued on November 30 
confirmed the escape of the five prisoners, but claimed 
the incident occurred in the early morning hours of 
November 28, and made no mention of any attempt to free 
Anibalzinho. In a December 1 meeting with Emboffs, 
the police stated that several police and prison 
guards had been detained in connection with the escape of 
the five prisoners and denied any connection between the 
escape and a wider operation to free Anibalzinho. 
In a follow-up conversation with MediaFAX' editor, the 
daily continued to back its story, claiming that 
well-placed police and Ministry of Interior contacts 
are certain that Anibalzinho was to have been 
freed also.  The sources indicated that the operation 
was carefully planned and involved payoffs to prison 
guards for their complicity.  The escape apparently was 
foiled by a new prison guard not in on the plot. 
 
3. (U) On November 29 Minister of Interior Pacheco 
acknowledged on television that there are significant 
weaknesses in the state of security at Maputo's 
Maximum Security Prison and the City Police Command. 
On December 1 he convened a high-level meeting with police 
commanders to discuss internal security strategies and 
the fight against corruption within the police force. 
 
4. (SBU) Comment: MediaFax is considered one of the most 
reliable of the independent journals.  Another escape 
by Anibalzinho, just before his trial, would have greatly 
embarrassed the Guebuza government.  That said, analysts 
we have talked with doubt his retrial will produce any 
significant revelations beyond what emerged in 2003. 
The successful escape of five prisoners from the most 
secure facility in the country compounds growing unease 
over rising crime and the ineffectiveness of the Mozambican 
police force. 
LA LIME