The Court of Appeal of Porto (TRP) has overturned a decision that sentenced a man to 12 years in prison for human trafficking, ordering the hearing to be reopened to question more defense witnesses.
The ruling of the TRP, dated November 8, which Lusa read this Wednesday, confirmed the case of the defendant, who filed an appeal against the ruling of the president of the panel hearing the case in the court of São João Novo in Porto.
The point is that the judge rejected the defense’s request to re-examine the witness and examine seven new witnesses after a minor change and change in the legal qualification of the facts set out in the order communicated to the accused during the trial.
The Court of Appeal concluded that the appealed order violated a number of provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and, as a result, decided to resume the court hearing for the interrogation of the persons indicated by the defendant in the submitted statement.
This decision entails the reversal of actions subsequent to the appealed decision, including the condemning decision.
On April 13, the São João Novo court in Porto sentenced the man to the maximum legal term of 12 years in prison for committing 12 crimes related to human trafficking, and was acquitted of two of these crimes.
In addition to the prison sentence, the accused, who already has three previous convictions in Spain, one of which for the same crime, was sentenced to pay about 93 thousand euros to the victims and about 68 thousand euros to the state, which corresponds to the benefit obtained by criminal activity.
During the announcement of the decision, the chairman of the panel of judges recalled that the 51-year-old man always acted deliberately, as he lured, deceived and transported victims to Spain with false promises regarding working and living conditions in order to illegally obtain economic benefits for himself.
“He exploited them to the limit to enrich himself by taking advantage of the situation of these people, namely their fragility, dependence, lack of family support and economic status,” the judge said.
Further noting that the man took advantage of the labor of these people for his own purposes, the judge emphasized that the conditions in which they were subjected were “degrading and inhumane.”
Those affected had no rest days, were not paid, and for those who were, the amount was less than promised, the accommodation was unsuitable and the drinks and food were nutritionally poor, he stressed.
The judge also emphasized that throughout the entire process the man demonstrated “deliberate insensitivity” and showed neither remorse nor sympathy for the victims, so there was a risk of repeating these crimes.
Initially, the defendant was accused of 19 crimes of slavery, but after changing the legal classification of the facts set out in the indictment, he began to commit 14 crimes related to human trafficking.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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