admit to such accusations. These police officers had no evidence. They had no evidence of the material used for the alleged cutting of Joana’s body. They had no evidence of bones left by the pigs. The inspectors themselves were pigs, about five of them, screaming and trying to get her to confess what they wanted her to confess. Leonor refused to confess. So the torture began. First the inspectors put two glass ashtrays on the floor and forced Leonor to kneel on them.
They did not allow her to get up from her knees throughout this torture. Leonor has described to me how she was in pain for hours during this procedure. She had scars on her knees. Almost 4 years later, these scars are still visible, and will probably remain with her for the rest of her life. There are white lines on both her knees that show that she has fallen victim to such abuse, or at least something very similar.
When they realised that this procedure of forcing her to kneel on ashtrays was getting them nowhere, the detective inspectors, sitting on their chairs, then put Leonor’s head in a green, plastic supermarket bag. As they screamed, trying to force a false confession from her, the inspectors began to attack Leonor on the head with a hard cardboard tube, normally used for sending documents by mail.
This very hard pipe, used with extreme force on Leonor’s head, caused bleeding to her eyes. On occasions when Leonor tried to get the bag off her head, she was immediately assaulted further on her hands. She pleaded with them not to kill her.
These serious assaults were interwoven with other forms of torture. Sometimes Eleanor was able to stand once in a while, sometimes holding the bag, sometimes not holding the bag. On the occasions she was standing, the inspectors punched her violently with strong punches, especially on her sides.
This procedure was repeated many times. The torture lasted 2 days. Leonor says she was afraid of dying there. So after 2 days of continuous torture, she signed the confession that was put in front of her, without even reading it, because otherwise she feared she might die.
No. 4
In possession of Leonor’s false confession, the inspectors then returned her to the prison. But on admission, it was noted that her state of health was so serious that the prison authorities decided to move her to the Medical Centre in Odemira Prison. In fact, Faro Hospital had the most comprehensive health care, with input from Californian health care experts, but she was still sent to Odemira Prison by the detectives. Leonor Cipriano had been warned before going back to Odemira Prison to tell the doctor and the prison authorities that she had thrown herself down the stairs of the offices of the Faro Police Station in order to try to commit suicide.
She had been threatened that if she revealed any details of the 2-day assault on her, they would bring her back for a further assault. She had been told by the Faro detectives that if she had to return to Faro Police Station they would beat her until she was no longer alive.
Leonor confirmed to the prison authorities, in the presence of them, exactly what they had been told by the insepctors to say.
But scarcely had they left the prison, than Leonor decided to tell the whole truth to the guards and to the Director of Odemira Prison. She – the Prison Governor – was alarmed by the precarious state of health and the pain of Leonor Cipriano. She therefore arranged for her to be photographed and sent back to the Odemira Prison Medical Centre, this time to be seen by a top Consultant Doctor.
No. 5
I talked for almost 2 hours to Leonor Cipriano. I had been careful to also arrange for a meeting immediately afterwards with the Director of Odemira Prison, in order to confirm this information. I promptly received this confirmation. I talked with the Director of Odemira Prison for about one hour. Her name is Ana Maria Calado.
She has a degree in Sociology and also attended a course of Medicine. She has been the Director of Odemira Prison for 7 years. She confirmed to me the courage with which Leonor Cipriano had reported her torture.
She is clearly a person who puts great emphasis on the value of corporate interests. Dr. Ana Maria told me she was shocked by the state in which Leonor Cipriano entered the prison.
She told me that the black marks, contusions and bruises were visible abundantly in the face, especially around the eyes, on the head and on her back, mainly to the sides.
These findings were confirmed by medical experts in the prison. The physical marks on her, the doctors concluded, clearly indicated violent attacks, and not a by a simple falling down the stairs. These physical marks were numerous and quite pronounced.
During our meeting, Dr Ana Maria surprised me with several new facts. She told me that the Portuguese Judiciara had not even bothered to convey her to a hospital in Faro and never sent a health delegate to the prison to try to prove that the injuries seen in the prison resulted from the alleged suicide attempt the on the stairs.
Another strange fact was that the Portuguese police had chosen Tuesday as the day to question her, coinciding with its week of vacation.
Associação Contra a Exclusão pelo Desenvolvimento
http://iscte.pt/~apad/ACED Contactos: +351 96 476 47 41 • antonio.dores@iscte.pt
pretensa tentativa de suicídio pelas escadas; estranha ainda o facto de a PJ ter
escolhido os dias de interrogatório exactamente coincidindo com a sua semana de férias,
dado que se estivesse em trabalho, nunca teria permitido o comportamento da PJ de ir
buscar Leonor às 6 horas da manhã e devolvê‐la pela meia‐noite, sem que houvesse um
pedido formal da direcção da PJ, o qual nunca existiu; estranha ainda mais o facto de,
quando instaurado um processo interno de averiguações por parte da PJ e em relação à
tortura de Joana, uma equipa de dois inspectores de Lisboa, em reunião privada com ela
no estabelecimento prisional, terem tentado negociar uma repartição de culpas entre a PJ
e o mesmo estabelecimento prisional em relação às agressões de Leonor. Como pessoa
íntegra, a Dra. Ana Calado obviamente recusou compactuar sobre algo de que o seu
estabelecimento não tinha qualquer responsabilidade. Afirmou ainda a Sra. Directora que
o estado de saúde de Leonor Cipriano piorou ainda mais uma semana depois de ter sido
torturada, dado que o sangue acumulado à volta das sobrancelhas era tanto, que fez
descair as mesmas sobre os olhos de Leonor, fazendo que ficasse praticamente cega
durante quase um mês. Só se arrepende hoje de não ter também mandado tirar fotografias a
esse período da saúde de Leonor. A Dra. Ana Maria Calado afirmou‐me ainda que Leonor
Cipriano "em termos de postura e comportamento é uma das melhores reclusas que tive
desde há muitos anos", e que não acredita minimamente que ela tenha tentado se suicidar,
porque não só já teria muitas oportunidades para o fazer depois do fatídico
interrogatório mas nunca o fez, como também não tem quaisquer antecedentes anteriormente
à sua detenção. Reforçou ainda a excelente relação de Leonor com os guardas e as outras
reclusas. Com um toque de humor, acrescentou que se o seu automóvel explodisse eu
saberia já quem teria sido. Enfim, terminamos a nossa reunião, vindo a confirmar as
excelentes referências que já tinha desta Sra. Directora.
Nº6
Relativamente a João Cipriano, 38 anos, irmão 1 ano mais velho de Leonor, esta afirma
também que ele foi torturado separadamente, segundo o mesmo lhe relatara, mas que o
estabelecimento prisional para onde o irmão foi deslocado não se dignou a efectuar as
mesmas diligências probatórias das agressões como fizera Odemira. João Cipriano
escreveu, posteriormente à sentença de ambos, uma carta a Leonor pedindo‐lhe desculpas,
mais concretamente para que a irmã lhe perdoasse todas as mentiras que ele foi forçado a
dizer.
Nº7
Leonor Cipriano tentou identificar, a pedido do Ministério Público, os inspectores que a
torturaram. Segundo a mesma, foi transportada a Évora em 2006 para tentar reconhecer
algum dos torturadores de entre seis inspectores que lhe foram apresentados.
Infelizmente, dado o lapso de tempo, o facto de muitas vezes estar com um saco na cabeça
quando agredida, e ainda a possibilidade de não se encontrarem no local do
reconhecimento todos os agressores, Leonor apenas foi capaz de afirmar com certeza
absoluta que Gonçalo Amaral, então coordenador do DIC de Portimão, esteve presente
durante o interrogatório, assistindo às torturas de forma perfeitamente complacente,
porque todas as vezes que teve os olhos destapados e era agredida ele lá se encontrava,
andando de um lado para outro, sem nunca ter tentado impedir as torturas levadas a cabo
pelos seus subordinados.
CONCLUSÃO
Dada a elevada credibilidade do testemunho de Leonor Cipriano, corroborado agora por
João Cipriano, por desde sempre António Leandro David Silva, e acima de tudo pelo
depoimento absolutamente credível da Sra. Directora do Estabelecimento Prisional de
Odemira, Dra. Ana Maria Calado, aliás atestado pelas perícias médico‐legais mandadas
efectuar pela mesma, estou convicto estarmos perante um caso que configura um crime de
tortura perpetrado por agentes da Polícia Judiciária portuguesa sobre Leonor Cipriano. É
inadmissível que agentes da autoridade continuem a usar de métodos medievais para
arrancar confissões a todo o custo, mesmo que falsas, fazendo lembrar a máxima de um
inquisidor de há 600 anos atrás que admitia que se fosse preciso até fazia o Papa