Aníbal António "Anibalzinho" dos Santos Júnior (Aníbal dos Santos, born 1971 or 1972) is a Portuguese criminal convicted of masterminding the November 22, 2000, murder of Carlos Cardoso, a journalist investigating bank fraud in Mozambique's Central Bank (BCM).
After a first trial in absentia in 2003,[1] one failed and two successful escapes and two extraditions (from South Africa and Canada), dos Santos was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in January 2006.
[3] As of April, 2008, dos Santos remained in Mozambican custody and was investigated in another attempted murder case, that of BCM lawyer Albano Silva.
Later, trial judges adopted the version of events that dos Santos was driving the stolen ambush car that overtook Cardoso's Toyota and forced it to the curb; the shots were fired by another suspect.
[12] The murder occurred two weeks after 26 people were killed in riots;[15] Cardoso reported on the incident and was highly critical of both leading political parties' actions preceding the clashes.
[19] Dos Santos was arrested in Pretoria, South Africa, at the end of January 2003, one day before the scheduled pronouncement of court sentence in Maputo.
[1] In the end of 2003 three of the convicts, but not dos Santos, were reported to be involved in court proceedings against the fraud at the Central Bank — the last case of Carlos Cardoso.
[26] Authorities persuaded dos Santos to drop the request for asylum in exchange for a fair retrial in Mozambique, an option open to anyone sentenced in absentia to more than two years in jail.
[27] On December 14, 2004, Canadian authorities approved extradition, and dos Santos finally departed for Mozambique on January 21, 2005,[26] arriving in Maputo the next day.
[29] Dos Santos immediately pleaded innocent and not guilty and said that his previous statements on the Cardoso case had been the result of manipulation by his former defence lawyer.
[30] Dos Santos exonerated Nyimpine Chissano from any association with the murder and identified the Satar family members, already convicted at the 2002-2003 trial, as his principal clients.
[4] According to the new statements by dos Santos, Chissano initially contacted him on to hire a car; commentators expressed disbelief that such a petty business could grow into a murder contract.
[4] On December 7, 2008, dos Santos escaped from a maximum security Maputo prison for a third time,[5] together with two other notable gangsters.
[8][9] The opposition requested that the national parliament summon executive ministers for an explanation, but the proposal was turned down by majority vote.