The postponement of the start of the trial, scheduled for November 23 in the Sintra court, was confirmed to Lusa by a source connected to the defense, who added that nevertheless two witnesses will be heard for future memory, via video conference, reported in Brazil.
The Lisbon Court of Appeal (TRL) had decided last week to uphold the trial of Judge Catarina Pires, who had applied coercive measures to Duarte Lima (66) and was therefore unable to attend.
It concerned a conflict between Judge Catarina Pires, who had applied coercive measures on September 30 to the former deputy and was the holder of the trial scheduled for the next 23rd, and Judge Carlos Camacho, current Judge 2 of the Court of Sintra and that she would replace the magistrate because of the alleged obstruction, but that she believed there were no grounds for doing so, which led to the matter being considered by the TRL.
For the judge of the TRL Filomena Gil, who signs the judgment, invoking the law on obstacles to judges (article 40.º of the Code of Criminal Procedure) is not justified in this situation, since the judge has applied the coercive measures to Duarte Lima – weekly presentations to the criminal investigation department on residence and prohibition to go abroad – “already in the trial phase and had no intervention in the previous phase, namely in the investigation, as an investigating judge”.
As early as the end of last month, a source linked to the trial had pointed out to Lusa that the trial could be postponed again due to the lack of notification of witnesses by the Brazilian authorities, who had already been involved in the case. previous postponement.
Rosalina Ribeiro was murdered in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, with Brazilian judicial authorities charging the lawyer and former deputy sheriff with murder for allegedly appropriating about five million euros deposited in an account in Switzerland, which the defendant alleged they were fees.
The facts date back to December 7, 2009, when Rosalina Ribeiro, who had Duarte Lima as a lawyer in the inheritance trial of Lúcio Tomé Feteira, was shot dead, her body found on the side of a road in Maricá (Rio de Janeiro) from January).
Source: DN
