Guinean MP Manuel Irenio Nascimento Lopez, detained on Tuesday at Lisbon airport with 13 kilograms of cocaine, has been placed in preventive detention, a judicial source told Lusa this Friday.
According to the same source, the accused attended his first judicial interrogation at the Lisbon Criminal Court, which decided on the most serious coercive measure: preventive detention.
Movement for a Democratic Alternative (MADEM-G 15) deputy Manuel Irenio Nascimento Lopez, 57, was found on Tuesday at Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon after a Portuguese airline TAP flight from Bissau with 13 kilograms of cocaine hidden in his luggage.
This is the second case of suspected drug trafficking by Guineans detained at Lisbon airport in recent weeks.
Prosecutor Eduardo Mancaña, who had been on study leave in Portugal for more than three years, was arrested on April 21 “in flagrante delicto” for possessing two kilograms of a product suspected of being drugs, according to a statement from the Portuguese High Council. A court order issued by the Guinean Ministry of Justice on the 25th announcing his removal from duties.
Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoko Embalo expressed regret over Mancaña’s arrest, stressing that the case was being reviewed between the judiciary of both countries.
Guinean newspaper O Democrat claims MP Manuel Irenio López, known as “Manelinho”, is a “businessman investing in the career sector” as well as a political leader who is among the 15 dissident MPs of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC ), who in 2015 created MADEM-G 15, the second largest political force in the country.
Manuel Lopez led the Guinea-Bissau Football Federation for eight years and was sacked by FIFA in 2020 after being found guilty of “failing to protect the physical and mental integrity of a person who was the victim of a mass attack” and was not allowed to was allowed from maintaining ties with sports for ten years, the publication adds.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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