Requests for changes to the indictment order are delaying the start of the first judicial interrogation.
A week ago today, Pedro Calado, Avelino Farinha and Custódio Correia were arrested as part of the alleged corruption case in the Autonomous Region. The defendants should have started to be heard by the criminal investigation judge within 48 hours, but on the eighth day they were only identified.
Contributing to delaying the start of the first judicial interrogation are a series of facts. First of all, the procedural flaws in the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s indictment and the complete availability of the evidentiary evidence to defense lawyers.
The defendants have been brought before the Central Criminal Investigation Court successive times, but as of 12 noon today they had not yet begun to be interrogated. Several figures have already publicly criticized the excessive delay in starting the investigation phase while the defendants are detained. The defense claims that the situation is unprecedented in Portuguese justice.
Yesterday, the judge in charge of the case, Jorge Bernardes de Melo, decided to read the seven dozen pages of the indictment order, a document that the defendants have access to and knowledge of. Pedro Calado, Avelino Farinha and Custódio Correia waited, standing, for four hours for the end of the reading, which lasted until 8pm.
The court officials yesterday gave up their overtime strike at the request of the magistrate.