SA deports Moz murderer
2009-08-26 22:09
Maputo - South Africa has deported Mozambique's most wanted criminal Anibal dos Santos Junior, who was convicted of murdering a high-profile journalist but escaped prison eight months ago, police said.
Mozambican police announced on Wednesday that Dos Santos had been arrested in an Interpol operation, but South African police said he had been arrested last week due to a visa violation.
"He was arrested on Friday because he was in the country illegally. He was deported to Mozambique on Monday," said Saps spokesperson Tummi Golding.
Dos Santos, known by the nickname Anibalzinho, was serving a 30-year sentence for the 2000 assassination of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso.
He escaped from prison in December last year.
Heading for Brazil
In Mozambique, police said an Interpol operation first found clues that Dos Santos was in Johannesburg about a month ago.
"Signs indicate Anibalzinho was set to depart Saturday for Brazil," Pedro Cossa, Mozambique national police spokesperson told journalists in Maputo.
Dos Santos has escaped from prison three times since his arrest for the politically charged Cardoso murder.
Cardoso, one of Mozambique's leading investigative journalists, had been reporting on allegations of corruption in a failed bank privatisation when he was gunned down in central Maputo in November 2000.
Nyimpine Chissano, the son of former president Joaquim Chissano, was charged with masterminding the murder but died before the case went to trial.
- SAPA
