Court annuls the entire investigation and trial phase of Paulo Pereira CristóvãoFormer inspector of the Judiciary Police is involved in a lawsuit involving 17 defendants accused of violent assaults on private residences.
By Lusa
Published 25 Sept 2017
The Court of Criminal Investigation of Cascais annulled the whole investigation phase and, consequently, the trial of Paulo Pereira Cristóvão, former inspector of the Judiciary Police, in a case with another 17 defendants accused of violent assaults on private residences.
"I annul all the evidence produced in the investigation, as well as the instructional debate and the investigation decision, which, consequently, and in the face of a new production of evidence, must inevitably be repeated," said the order of the criminal investigation judge, Cristina Henriques Esteves , dated Tuesday and the one that the agency Lusa had access today. The trial, also now annulled, began in June 2016 at the Central Criminal Instance of Lisbon, but was suspended on February 16 of this year by the collective of judges, pending a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice, which would declare the "material incompetence" of the Central Criminal Investigation Court for the conduct of the investigation phase. The defense of the former Judicial Police inspector had brought an action to annul the act that declared the investigation phase open, claiming "material incompetence of the Central Criminal Investigation Court" (TCIC) to deal with the crimes in question. The defense stated that this phase should have been carried out by the Court of Criminal Investigation (TIC) of Cascais.
The appeal reached the Supreme Court, which granted it, declared the TCIC incompetent to carry out the investigation phase and referred the case to the Court of Appeals of Lisbon (TRL). The TRL decided, in turn, to send the case back to Judge Carlos Alexandre, of the Central Court of Criminal Investigation, who referred them to the ICC in Cascais. This instance now nullified the whole process until the investigation phase. "Declared incompetent of the TCIC, it is necessary to annul the acts that would not have been practiced if before this court they had run and ordered the repetition of the acts necessary to know the cause", underlines the dispatch of the ICT of Cascais. "The evidence produced in the instruction was recorded, however, acts were practiced that we would not have practiced if before us had run the records, namely the hearing of witnesses who were heard during the investigation and the hearing of others whose interest is not seen in this instruction and especially for the discovery of the truth, "argues the criminal investigating judge. The order states that the evidence, although recorded, was not produced before this instance, which compromises a deeper knowledge of it, even if it does not legally make it impossible to conduct the instructional debate.
Regarding the documentary evidence produced, the Cascais TIC understands that "it is not envisaged that it has to be produced again", but "all testimonial evidence and declarations of the defendants produced in the instruction" are annulled. The Court of Criminal Investigation of Cascais also admitted the requests for the opening of the investigation presented by five of the defendants, and there are no dates for the beginning of the new phase of investigation, which aims to decide whether or not the defendants go to trial. The 18 defendants, including three police officers and Juve Leo's cheerleader Juve Leo, Nuno Vieira Mendes, known as Mustafa, respond by criminal association, robbery, kidnapping, possession of a prohibited weapon, abuse of power, violation of domicile by employee and document forgery. According to the indictment of the Public Prosecutor's Office, Paulo Pereira Cristóvão, a former inspector of PJ and also a former vice-president of Sporting, two other defendants and the three police gathered information and decided which people and places to assault by the group, namely in the Lisbon area and on the south bank of the Tagus River. The information was then transmitted to the other elements, which formed the operational side of the alleged criminal network.
http://www.cmjornal.pt/cm-ao-minuto/detalhe/tribunal-anula-toda-a-fase-de-instrucao-e-julgamento-de-paulo-pereira-cristovao
