The Court of Braganza has postponed to February 17 the announcement of the verdict in the case of the death of a young native of Cape Verde, Luis Giovani, which has already been twice appointed and will take place three years after the events.
The decision of the panel of judges on the charge of qualified murder of seven youths from Braganca is now scheduled for February 17, at 2:00 pm, in the Braganca court after being postponed in September due to a change in the facts described in the indictment. .
The changes led the defense of one of the defendants to ask that the three friends, who are plaintiffs in the process and accompanied the victim, be heard again in the early hours of December 21, 2019 during the fight that resulted in the death of Luis Giovani 10 days later.
In October, the friends were cross-examined and the verdict was scheduled for December, but it has been postponed and has now been rescheduled for February 17th.
Three Cape Verdeans who claimed in the process that they had been attacked testified again, but none of them was able to establish which of the seven defendants was the author of the alleged aggression that caused the head injury from which the victim died.
Early on the morning of December 21, 2019, four Cape Verdeans got into a fight with a group of Portuguese.
One Cape Verdean who had recently arrived in Bragança to study at the local polytechnic, Luis Giovani, 21, showed up that morning unconscious and alone on the street with a head injury that was confirmed only after admission to the hospital. emergency room at a hospital in Braganca.
The original version of the Cape Verdeans, which was accompanied by a public ministry, was that the young man had been attacked by a group of Portuguese using sticks, belts, punches and kicks.
Initially, eight young men were in pre-trial detention and charged with qualified murder against Luis Giovani and attempted murder against three friends.
During the briefing phase, at the request of some of the defendants, one of the defendants was withdrawn from the trial, while the remaining seven were still charged with qualified murder, but the charge of violating the physical integrity of three defendants was reduced. .
Friends of Luis Giovani argued in court that the victim was beaten while lying on the ground, despite the fact that the collective judges insisted that this version was “irrational”, since the young man had no other bodily injuries, except for an injury on his body. his head.
The presiding officer’s question remains unanswered about how his friends lost Luis Giovani, whom third parties found alone a few hundred meters from the brawl.
In the final allegations, the prosecutor contested the prosecutor’s original charge, ruling out that “the cruelty described in the indictment” took place, and considered that the six defendants were innocent and that whoever understands that he hit Giovani with a stick did not do it with the intent kill or hit him while in a skirmish with another Cape Verdean.
For this defendant, the deputy asked for a prison sentence of “at least six years”, while the defense cites the victim’s possible fall as the cause of the fatal injury, which is also cited by the autopsy, which was inconclusive. about the cause of death as a result of an accidental blow or fall.
The controversy that led to this outcome must have started in a bar in the city of Bragança between a Cape Verdean and two Portuguese, because the former allegedly contacted the women in question.
The prosecutor is convinced that already on the street, one of the inhabitants of Cape Verde hit with his fist one of the Portuguese, who is not involved in this process, and that after this act there was a “gathering of people, an exchange of pennants”, not knowing who hit whom.
This Cape Verdean was sentenced in another case to a fine of 440 euros for an aggression against the Portuguese who filed a complaint on the facts, but which was not included in the trial of Giovani’s death.