Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s visit to the army lasted about ten minutes, at the Curry Cabral hospital in Lisbon, and was accompanied by the Chief of Staff of the Army (CEME), General José Nunes da Fonseca.
However, the head of state said nothing about the investigative process opened for the 138th command course, said he knew nothing about it, nor had he discussed the matter with the interned army.
“No, we didn’t talk about that. We talked about several other things, but not specifically about that,” he assured journalists at the end of the visit, which took place immediately after landing in Lisbon from Luanda, where he attended the inauguration of the President of the Republic João Lawrence.
When asked whether this situation can be due to causes other than others that have occurred in the past, the President of the Republic replied, as he said: “There is nothing like investigating, it is being investigated, then it will be soon seen”.
“Until the end of the investigation, no one has any conclusions, of course I will not present them, it will be the competent authorities (…) I have no elements and I should not, because it is under investigation and it would be bad if anyone outside the investigation knew anything about the investigation,” he insisted, faced with new questions from journalists.
Regarding the soldier’s health, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa welcomed the fact that “on the basis of a national appeal” it had been possible to find a liver for transplant.
“It was necessary to wait for the next few hours. The good news is that there is nothing better than talking to him, listening to his testimony that he is doing his best within the existing framework,” he said.
The president of the republic reported that the soldier is “in a good mood”, to “evolve very well from a physical and mental point of view”.
“I heard it was his birthday on the day of the operation itself and we will now celebrate that birthday later when he leaves here,” he said.
The President of the Republic took the opportunity to greet the Curry Cabral Hospital and praise the “dedication and competence” of its professionals,
“I want to say that the National Health Service (SNS), the day after it celebrated another birthday, did justice to the importance it has in the lives of the Portuguese,” he praised.
Last Saturday, the Army General Staff ordered the interruption of the 138th command course until that formation’s investigative process was established.
The military is waiting for the conclusions of the investigation process, “to be determined shortly”, to assess the need for adjustments, following the recent incidents involving hospitalized soldiers.
The department indicated a total of six interventions at a hospital as part of the 138th course: to the soldier who is in the hospital, to a second soldier who had a respiratory failure and was discharged last week, and to four soldiers still in the hospital. Hospital das Forças Armadas, in the Lisbon hub, “as a result of the health assessment carried out on all trainees on 8 September”.
The president of the republic said on Sunday that the case appears to be “a very different situation” from what happened six years ago, when two young men died during an exercise.
“An investigation is underway, but it may happen that the situation is very different from the previous one,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa during a visit to the Lisbon Book Fair.
Dylan da Silva and Hugo Abreu, then 20 years old, died and other trainees suffered serious injuries and had to be hospitalized during the “zero test” (first test of the Commando course), which took place in Alcochete, Setúbal, on Sept 2016.
Eight officers, eight sergeants and three soldiers, all of the Commandos, most of them instructors, were charged with abuse of power for violation of bodily integrity. According to the prosecution, the defendants acted with “obvious disregard for the serious consequences they caused to the victims”.
Source: DN
