The independence of the courts has healed many of the wounds of this large Portuguese-speaking southern African country, scarred by an interminable civil war (1976-1992). Heavy sentences handed down in 2004 to the killers of journalist Carlos Cardoso, gunned down in the street on 22 November 2000, contributed to an improvement in working conditions for reporters, even if there are still occasional episodes now and then. Only the escapes from prison, as spectacular as they were suspicious, by the suspected leader of hired killers "Anibalzinho", cast a shadow over this case which so deeply marked Mozambican society. But the man was rearrested while seeking political exile in Canada and send back to Maputo to face his judges. At the start of December 2005, Anibalzinho abruptly changed his line of defence, denying any involvement in the Carlos Cardoso murder, despite the evidence, confessions of accomplices and his own confession, in 2003, to a representative of Reporters Without Borders.

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