Anibal dos Santos fled Mozambique
Abandons his fight to remain here
MICHELLE SHEPHARD AND DALE BRAZAO
STAFF REPORTERS
The convicted leader of a death squad that killed Mozambique's top investigative journalist has given up his fight to stay in Canada and is expected to return home by the weekend, according to a South African news report.
Anibal dos Santos has been in Canadian custody since he arrived at Pearson airport in May seeking refuge. The 33-year-old had escaped from a high-security prison in Maputo, Mozambique, where he was serving a 28-year sentence.
The case has gripped the African country since journalist Carlos Cardoso was killed in November 2000 following his report on a bank scam that involved the siphoning of $14 million (U.S.) from the state-run Commercial Bank of Mozambique. Investigations are still going on in Mozambique as to whether Nyimpine Chissano, the son of former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano, was involved in the bank fraud and Cardoso's murder.
Dos Santos's break from jail in May was the second time he had escaped and came just before he was questioned about Chissano, fuelling suspicions of high-powered connections in his case.
Citing unnamed sources, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported that Dos Santos is expected to arrive in Maputo, via South Africa, by tomorrow. Canadian immigration department spokesperson Réjean Cantlon said he could not comment on Dos Santos's case specifically, and due to security concerns, removals are not confirmed until travel is completed.
Dos Santos was ordered deported by an Immigration and Refugee Board member last month after he was deemed inadmissible to Canada due to his criminal conviction in Mozambique. Before he could be removed, the immigration minister had to rule on whether he was a danger to Canada. If not considered a danger, he could proceed with his refugee claim.
But three days after the immigration hearing, Mozambique's Supreme Court ordered him a new trial, ruling that the lower court should not have tried him in absentia. Dos Santos had escaped prison for the first time in 2002, just before his trial, and fled to South Africa. He was not captured and returned until after his conviction.
Mozambican journalist and Cardoso's biographer Paul Fauvet believes this may be why Dos Santos agreed to give up his fight in Canada.
"It's clearly linked to the decision by the Supreme Court to allow him a retrial. It must be connected," Fauvet said in a telephone interview from Maputo yesterday. "It's maybe that he wants to spill some beans. It may be that he thinks someone is going to protect him. Really, this is just speculation at this point, though."
Dos Santos's lawyer Guidy Mamann said he hadn't spoken to his client, who is being held at a detention centre in Lindsay, Ont., for three weeks. Mamann said he was not aware of any plans to return to Mozambique.
"If he has in fact made a deal with Immigration, it wouldn't surprise me," Mamann said. "He's now presumed innocent under Mozambican law (due to the Supreme Court ruling) so he'll return to have his day in court."
Members of Toronto's Mozambican community and residents with ties to Cardoso through relief work in the country have been pressuring the Canadian government to expel Dos Santos.
TORONTO STAR - 21.01.2005
