how can they be cleared when they have not been accused of anything
I didn't write the ruling,the supreme court did,far higher an authority than you or I.It was well documented at the time.
"'It should not be said that the appellants were cleared via the ruling announcing the archiving of the criminal case.
'In truth, that ruling was not made in virtue of Portugal's Public Prosecution Service having acquired the conviction that the appellants hadn't committed a crime.
'The archiving of the case was determined by the fact that public prosecutors hadn't managed to obtain sufficient evidence of the practice of crimes by the appellants.
'There is therefore a significant, and not merely a semantic difference, between the legally admissible foundations of the archive ruling.
'It doesn't therefore seem acceptable that the ruling, based on the insufficiency of evidence, should be equated to proof of innocence.'"