At least six defendants in the case of an alleged network that hired immigrants to farm in the Alentejo have appealed the ruling, and one has filed a petition for habeas corpus, a lawyer representing them said Monday.
Lawyer Pedro Pestana, who defends six of the 47 defendants in the case, told Lusa this Monday that appeals against the decision have been filed with the Court of Appeal of Évora (TRE).
An application for the immediate release (“habeas corpus”) of the only one of his six clients in pre-trial detention was submitted to the Supreme Court (STJ) in Lisbon.
The lawyer believes that “the debate over the instructions was very heated” and the decision on the instructions was of “insurmountable nullity.”
“The judge had only eight days to sort out the case, and this is a mega-process. Human trafficking is the largest, there are 39 volumes, 122 appendices, a lot of wiretaps and a lot of evidence,” he emphasized, emphasizing that “it was humanly impossible make an instructive decision during this period.”
The trial, he said, “lasted one year, three months and 22 days in Lisbon” and was brought to the Cuban court in the district of Beja when eight days remained before the maximum period of preventive detention for some of them. defendants.
“Everything was done in a hurry,” and during the investigative debate, as the lawyer claimed, his speech was interrupted, the guards were left without lunch, and the defense even sat in the dock at the hearing due to the lack of a larger room.
Regarding the irreparable violations that he considered to exist, Pedro Pestana referred to the period between the notification and the date fixed for the debate on the instructions, stressing that the “time limit established by law” of a minimum of five days was not respected.
During the investigative debate, lawyers filed several complaints, two of which were his own, he added, explaining that one was related to the judge’s refusal to hear defense witnesses.
“All the defense witnesses were rejected as if only the witnesses called by the prosecution were valid,” he lamented, asking: “Where is the contradiction and the principle of parity of arms between the defense and the prosecution?”
The lawyer criticized the work of the prosecutor’s office (MP), saying that, in addition to the fact that “little or nothing” characterized the behavior of each of the defendants, it “put everything into one bag” because “they were all accused of everything.”
“The deputy practiced trawling, with the help of which he caught big fish, small fish and everything that is not a fish,” he complained.
The six defendants he represents were “charged with 343 crimes, but were only charged with 29 crimes.”
“They should not be made public because most crimes have been solved, and if I had the opportunity to present evidence, perhaps they would all be solved,” he added.
Deputies charged a total of 51 defendants in the trial, but on March 27, a judge ruled that 47 would face trial and three would not face any charges.
“While the case was pending, one of the defendants died, so the criminal case against her was declared closed,” the judge of the Cuban court responsible for the investigation of the case told Lusa.
47 defendants will be tried as co-authors and effective competitors for committing a crime in a criminal association, with six of them being convicted of 20 offenses related to human trafficking, four of a further eight identical offenses and eight of also seven of these offenses .
A total of 35 defendants will be charged with money laundering, and, according to the investigation, they are charged with possession of prohibited weapons and drug trafficking.
This case dates back to November 23, 2022, when the Judicial Police (JP) carried out an operation in the Beja region, during which they detained 35 suspects “faced with serious charges” for crimes related to the criminal community, human trafficking, money laundering and forgery of documents. documents, among others
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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