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After three sessions, and more than five years after the events, the Lisbon Court of Appeal confirmed the conviction of the eight policemen from the Alfragide Police Station, which was handed down in the first instance in May last year. The sentence of more than 500 pages has just been published – the intervening parties will be notified – and confirms “in its entirety” the previous one.
The Relationship also rejected the appeal of the six victims. He also acquitted the other nine officers who were acquitted by the Sintra Court. In other words, the penalties applied to the eight officers for different crimes are maintained (for crimes against physical integrity, aggravated kidnapping or falsification of documents – see list below).
Thus, although Chief Luís Anunciação was the one who had the longest sentence (five years for legal reasons), only one of the defendants (Joel Machado) had been sentenced to a prison sentence of one year and six months for a criminal record. . In the sentence, the judges justify that it is important that the community does not consider the suspension of sentences as a “sign of impunity” and states that “no doubt can be installed about the adequate reaction of the system to an event with the seriousness of attempting voluntarily against him ”. the physical integrity and freedom of Rui Moniz ”. In other words, “the possibility of suspension of the sentence is completely eliminated”.
The agents were still sentenced to pay damages to the six young people from Cova da Moura, which amount to almost 70,000 euros, at least: only chef Luís Anunciação will have to pay 50,000 euros in total, 10,000 euros each. five of the six offended. It is recalled that one of the victims, Celso Lopes, was shot in the leg; the agent João Nunes, the author of the shots, will have to pay him a compensation of five thousand euros.
The Relação judges wrote that they consider, like the Sintra judges, that there was a “serious abuse of authority” by the accused and that they went beyond “a manifest lack of respect for rights, freedoms and guarantees of any of the offended ”.
The trial in the first instance lasted a year, with 30 sessions and more than 100 people heard. The Relação trial began on September 16.
Facts practiced by the agents on February 5, 2015 are questioned. In the trial, the court divided them into two moments: a first in Cova da Moura and a second in the Alfragide Intervention and Inspection Station. In the first, a PSP team went to Cova da Moura to patrol and arrested Bruno Lopes, claiming that he had thrown stones at the police van; then the now convicted agent, João Nunes, fired two shots and hit two residents; in a second moment, friends of this young man, including members of the Moinho da Juventude association, went to the police station to ask for clarification, but ended up being arrested and accused of attempted invasion.
Lúcia Gomes, one of the six youth lawyers, considered that a “small mountain” was moved and hopes that the institutions can read this process (see box). Hélder Cristóvão, who was the attorney for the accused Arlindo silva so far, he declined to comment. Gonçalo Gaspar, a lawyer for five defendants, was surprised by the decision and assures that he will analyze the sentence in the coming weeks.
Relation wanted to hear witnesses
In an unusual procedure, Relação decided that he wanted to hear from a victim (Rui Moniz), one of the convicted officers (Joel Machado), and a witness who had never been questioned before (officer Carlos Machado). So it was in the second session on the trial of police appeals and assistants in the case. The eight officers, represented by three different lawyers, asked for acquittal and the assistants wanted everyone to have effective prison terms.
The defense of Joel Machado challenged the testimony of Rui Moniz, alleging that that day another policeman with the same surname was on duty, Carlos Machado, who was not heard in the Court of First Instance and, therefore, should be called to declare in the Relationship Room: what happened.
The Relação judges wanted to clarify various points of Rui Moniz’s testimony, even asking him to identify, in the courtroom, which of the two agents with the last name Machado accused of assaulting him. In the second session, Rui Moniz immediately identified Joel Machado. Joel Machado maintained the version that he is innocent.
In the last session, the prosecutor who followed the trial (but only from the second session) said that there was nothing new and that he maintained the position of the colleague who considered that the sanctions applied were “fair and adequate”. However, he stressed that he did not like to see policemen in the dock and asked the collective for their decision to draw attention to the fact that police officers should not behave in that way, or, if so, to the done. that society should not allow riots against the police.
In the first instance, both the Prosecutor Manuel das Dores and the collective judges withdrew the accusation of racism and torture of which the agents were charged, six of whom are represented by Gonçalo Gaspar, with the agent Arlindo Silva represented by Hélder Cristóvão and the other defendant, Joel Machado, represented by the firm Paes by Almeida.
These were the sentences to which the eight agents were sentenced, now confirmed by the Lisbon List:
- André Castro e Silva was convicted of libelous accusation, document forgery and aggravated kidnapping in a sentence of three years and nine months of suspended sentence
- Fábio Moura was sentenced to two years and six months of probation for aggravated kidnapping
- João Nunes was convicted of three crimes against physical integrity, a crime of document forgery in a four-year suspended sentence
- Luís Anunciação, then head of the squad, was the one who had the longest sentence, in a legal sum of five years for the crimes of libelous denunciation, aggravated document forgery and five crimes of aggravated kidnapping.
- André Quesado was sentenced to two years and six months for aggravated kidnapping
- Arlindo Silva was convicted of a crime to physical integrity and injuries in a legal sum of one year
- Hugo Gaspar was sentenced to two months for injury
- Joel Machado, who had previously been convicted of the crime of assault on physical integrity and “repeated” in the Alfragide Police Station case during the period in which he was serving a suspended sentence, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison.
