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Santos Junior (Anibalzinho) had been tried in absentia, because he has been illicitly releasedfrom the “top security” prison. Anibalzinho was detained by the South African police on January30, 2003, and repatriated to Mozambique the following day, just hours after the verdict. Heappealed, and in December 2004 the Supreme Court ruled that all accused persons tried inabsentia and sentenced to jail terms of two years or more have the right to a retrial. By the timeof the ruling, he had been allowed to escape from the “top security” prison for a second time;he was repatriated last year from Canada.At the original trial, held from November 2002 to January 2003, Anibalzinho and five otherswere found guilty of the assassination and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Two members ofthe death squad, the lookout, Manuel Fernandes, and the man who pulled the trigger, CarlitosRachid, made full confessions. They described how Anibalzinho had recruited them, and haddriven the car, a stolen Citi-Golf, used in the murder. Cardoso was killed on 22 November2000.· ALERTDate: October 19, 2005Persons/Institutions: Alvarito de CarvalhoViolation: ThreatenedOn October 19 2005, journalist Alvarito de Carvalho was questioned by an audience at theMaputo Attorney’s offices on the process Nr 756/PGC 2005, where he stands accused by theSupreme Court.The Supreme Court is accusing de Carvalho of misrepresenting it in a newspaper article whichalleged that it was knowingly delaying the investigation into the cause of a tragic railwayaccident that occurred in Tenga, in the district of Moamba, in the southern Maputo province inthe early hours of May 25, 2002.More than 200 persons, who were traveling in the train from Ressano Garcia to Maputo, diedin the accident.The Supreme Court felt offended by the article in question allegedly because de Carvalhowrote that “the justice system is trying implicitly to pass to the public the idea that the Tengaaccident was no more than a natural disaster”.The article in question reads that “the shelving” (referring to the suspicion that the SupremeCourt had shelved the sentence) is aimed at preventing the sentencing of the MozambiqueRailways and Ports company (CFM) and, as a consequence, delaying the payment of compensationto the relatives of the victims of the accident.· ALERTDate: July 07, 2005Persons/Institutions: Antonio Chimundo, Jorge AtaidViolation: Detained, censoredOn July 07 2005, journalist Antonio Chimundo and photographic reporter Jorge Ataide, bothfrom Diario de Mocambique, were arrested in Sofala province by two Rapid Reaction Force(FIR) agents for allegedly photographing them without authorization.Whilst the journalists were eventually released, the agents confiscated their digital camera anderased the images they had taken.· ALERTDate: June 28, 2005Persons/Institutions: Luis Muianga, Raul SendaViolation: BeatenOn June 28 2005, Zambeze weekly newspaper photojournalist Luis Muianga was brutallybeaten by a group of municipal police while working in downtown Maputo.Muianga and colleague Raul Senda were working on a story about an impending taxi fareSo This Is Democracy? 2005-84-Media Institute of Southern Africa