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The trial of the PJ inspectors comes to court.
Leonor Cipriano's lawyer continues to focus attention
on Gonçalo Amaral, as it is revealed that he wanted to close a secret deal with the other PJ inspectors to betray him.
Further reading:
The Joana Case (2) - the trial begins
(this page)
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The ACED and Marcos Aragão Correia's reports, on Leonor Cipriano,
which were sent to the highest Portuguese authorities, 08 April 2008
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To: Ex.mos. Ladies
President of the Republic;
President of the Assembly of the Republic;
Chairman of the
Committee for Constitutional Affairs, Rights, freedoms and guarantees of AR;
Attorney-General of the Republic
Minister
of Justice;
Ombudsman;
Inspector-General of Bureau of Justice;
President's Commission on Human Rights of the Bar
Lisbon, 8-04-2008
N. Ref No 16/apd/08
Subject: Report on police torture of Leonor Cipriano
As a lawyer of the ACED, Dr. Marcos Aragão Correia asked for the Policia Judiciaria to be prosecuted in connection with the
allegations of the torture of Leonor Cipriano.
It was concluded, as it is in the public domain, that the existence
of several signs and lines of evidence and the number of witnesses to the brutality and irrationality of the police's methods
of investigation meant that this complaint should be admitted and go forward.
We remember the defence of the accused
person at her trial, Leonor Cipriano, who said she had been threatened and tortured by members of the police.
Some
of the key players involved in this case have been mobilised to work in cases of high national and political delicacy, and
have been speaking out without any sort of restraint.
In addition to what our lawyer, Dr Marcos Aragão Correia, said,
it also could be a possibility in Portugal that certain public health institutions are able to cover up, or not report, practices
of torture against patients by themselves. It may be that there are members of our state security system who are organising
themselves to cover up the routine practice of torture to extract confessions.
This may be happening in other prisons,
but there have been no complaints in similar situations in other prisons.
The ACED is not, it is good to see, meaning
itself to confirm or disprove what is inferred to be the situation in Portugal regarding the current practice of police torture.
But the Portuguese state is signatory to international conventions that we are sure it will want to abide by.
So this
report must be sent to the highest Portuguese authorities, hoping that the name of Portugal can no longer be linked to such
shameful conduct by the police.
The Directorate
REPORT ON TORTURE IN LEONOR CIPRIANO CASE PERPETRATED BY THE PORTUGUESE JUDICIAL POLICE
Entity investigator: ACED - Association Against Exclusion for Development;
Researcher/Reporter: Marcos Aragão Correia, Lawyer;
Date: 08 April 2008
INTRODUCTION
Following the public allegations by Leonor Cipriano that she was tortured by the Policia Judiciara
back in September 2004, she is now currently in prison while serving a sentence of 16 years and 8 months in the Prison of
Odemira.
The ACED (Association Against Exclusion for Development) decided to investigate in more detail the claims
of Leonor Cipriano and others, especially when the situation had become urgent, to clarify the extent to which the Policia
Judiciara routinely engage in torture.
It seems that these medieval methods of criminal investigation apply both in
the most recent case of the girl Madeleine Beth McCann, and in the case of Leonor Cipriano.The social position of these two
sets of parents could not be more opposite.
Thus, after obtaining the kind and generous permission of the representative
of Leonor Cipriano, the Portuguese Dr. John Grade dos Santos, I visited Leonor Cipriano in Odemira Prison, in Alentejo,
arriving shortly after 9 o'clock in the morning today (April 8, 2008).
No. 1
Leonor Cipriano was summoned,
and agreed to talk with me in the room reserved for lawyers at the prison for the purpose.
Leonor Cipriano maintained,
with sincere conviction, that she had no involvement whatsoever in the death of her daughter Joana, who had gone missing on
12 September 2004, last being seen around 8.00pm.
Residents in the village of Figueira in Mexilhoeira Grande, near
Portimão, remember seeing Joana walking towards a grocery store named 'Pastry Célia', around a quarter of a mile away from
Leonor Cipriano's home. The grocery store is owned by Mrs. Alfélia. She went there to buy some food, as she often did.
After
about 10 minutes, when Joana did not return, Leonor Cipriano said she went to the grocery store to find her. The owner said
she had been there, but left soon after making a few purchases that had been requested by her mother.
Leonor still
tried to look for her daughter nearby, but in vain. As a result, the grocery owner Ms. Alfélia telephoned the GNR to ask for
help. Immediately the National Republican Guard arived at the grocery store and the mother’s residence by 9.00pm that
very evening.
Joana Cipriano was then 8 years old, born on May 31, 1996, and attending her 2nd year of schooling.
No. 2
Leonor Cipriano says she has 6 children, including Joana. The oldest is Dina Maria, now 18 years. Next
is Mark Anthony, 12 years, Joana would now be 11, André Filipe is now 8, Ruben 6, and Lara Sofia who is 4.
Despite
all the public defamation of Leonor Cipriano, the older children by and large support their mother. They are the offspring
of different relationships.
Leonor's former partner, David Anthony Leandro Silva, has now separated from her due to
all the stresses of the situation. He is the father of her two youngest children. He says he always treated Joana as his own
daughter, with five of them living in the same house. Leandro Silva has always claimed that Leonor Cipriano was utterly incapable
of hurting any of her six children.
No. 3
It was on September 25, 2004 that Leonor Cipriano was received at
the Prison of Odemira and detained there. There she was immediately taken for interrogation by several detective inspectors
of the Policia Judiciara to the premises of the Faro police. This is the place where Leonor Cipriano suffered hell. Her tears
just ran and ran; I saw copious tears in my presence.
I practise mainly in criminal law. I think I can say with great
conviction that her tears were genuine. Leonor cried when she recalled what those Policia Judiciara did to her during her
interrogation. They accused her of directly causing her death and then cutting up her body and feeding it to the pigs.
Leonor
refused to admit to such accusations. These police officers had no evidence. They had no evidence of the material used for
the alleged cutting of Joana's body. They had no evidence of bones left by the pigs. The inspectors themselves were pigs,
about five of them, screaming and trying to get her to confess what they wanted her to confess. Leonor refused to confess.
So the torture began. First the inspectors put two glass ashtrays on the floor and forced Leonor to kneel on them.
They
did not allow her to get up from her knees throughout this torture. Leonor has described to me how she was in pain for hours
during this procedure. She had scars on her knees. Almost 4 years later, these scars are still visible, and will probably
remain with her for the rest of her life. There are white lines on both her knees that show that she has fallen victim to
such abuse, or at least something very similar.
When they realised that this procedure of forcing her to kneel on
ashtrays was getting them nowhere, the detective inspectors, sitting on their chairs, then put Leonor's head in a green, plastic
supermarket bag. As they screamed, trying to force a false confession from her, the inspectors began to attack Leonor on the
head with a hard cardboard tube, normally used for sending documents by mail.
This very hard pipe, used with extreme
force on Leonor's head, caused bleeding to her eyes. On occasions when Leonor tried to get the bag off her head, she was immediately
assaulted further on her hands. She pleaded with them not to kill her.
These serious assaults were interwoven with
other forms of torture. Sometimes Eleanor was able to stand once in a while, sometimes holding the bag, sometimes not holding
the bag. On the occasions she was standing, the inspectors punched her violently with strong punches, especially on her sides.
This procedure was repeated many times. The torture lasted 2 days. Leonor says she was afraid of dying there. So after
2 days of continuous torture, she signed the confession that was put in front of her, without even reading it, because otherwise
she feared she might die.
No. 4
In possession of Leonor's false confession, the inspectors then returned her
to the prison. But on admission, it was noted that her state of health was so serious that the prison authorities decided
to move her to the Medical Centre in Odemira Prison. In fact, Faro Hospital had the most comprehensive health care, with
input from Californian health care experts, but she was still sent to Odemira Prison by the detectives. Leonor Cipriano
had been warned before going back to Odemira Prison to tell the doctor and the prison authorities that she had thrown
herself down the stairs of the offices of the Faro Police Station in order to try to commit suicide.
She had been
threatened that if she revealed any details of the 2-day assault on her, they would bring her back for a further assault.
She had been told by the Faro detectives that if she had to return to Faro Police Station they would beat her until she was
no longer alive.
Leonor confirmed to the prison authorities, in the presence of them, exactly what they had been told
by the insepctors to say.
But scarcely had they left the prison, than Leonor decided to tell the whole truth to the
guards and to the Director of Odemira Prison. She - the Prison Governor - was alarmed by the precarious state of health
and the pain of Leonor Cipriano. She therefore arranged for her to be photographed and sent back to the Odemira Prison
Medical Centre, this time to be seen by a top Consultant Doctor.
No. 5
I talked for almost 2 hours to Leonor
Cipriano. I had been careful to also arrange for a meeting immediately afterwards with the Director of Odemira Prison,
in order to confirm this information. I promptly received this confirmation. I talked with the Director of Odemira Prison
for about one hour. Her name is Ana Maria Calado.
She has a degree in Sociology and also attended a course of Medicine.
She has been the Director of Odemira Prison for 7 years. She confirmed to me the courage with which Leonor
Cipriano had reported her torture.
She is clearly a person who puts great emphasis on the value of corporate interests.
Dr. Ana Maria told me she was shocked by the state in which Leonor Cipriano entered the prison.
She told me that the
black marks, contusions and bruises were visible abundantly in the face, especially around the eyes, on the head and on her
back, mainly to the sides.
These findings were confirmed by medical experts in the prison. The physical marks on her,
the doctors concluded, clearly indicated violent attacks, and not a by a simple falling down the stairs. These physical marks
were numerous and quite pronounced.
During our meeting, Dr Ana Maria surprised me with several new facts. She told
me that the Portuguese Judiciara had not even bothered to convey her to a hospital in Faro.
Another strange fact was
that the Portuguese police had chosen Tuesday as the day to question her, coinciding with its week of vacation.
If
I were the head of the police, I would never have allowed the behaviour of the Policia Judiciara. They got Leonor Cipriano
at 6 o'clock in the morning, and then returned for her in the middle of the night. There was no formal request for this form
of interrogation from the Director of the Policia Judiciara.
It was even stranger that, when enquiries began with an
internal investigation into the interrogation and torture of Leonor Cipriano by the PJ, a team of two inspectors from Lisbon
held a private meeting with her in prison. Their mission was to try to negotiate a sharing of blame between the PJ and the Odemira
Prison in relation to the attacks on, and torture of, Leonor.
As a person of integrity, Dr. Ana Calado obviously
refused to come to any compromise regarding something for which the establishment for which she was responsible at the time
- Odemira prison - had no responsibility for whatsoever.
The Chief Prison Medical Officer said that Leonor
Cipriano's health had got even worse a week after she had been tortured. The blood had accumulated around the eyebrows and
became highly inflamed and swollen, making her nearly blind for nearly a month.
My only regret today, said Dr Ana Calado,
was that at the time I did not order more photographs to be taken to illustrate Leonor's poor state of health on admission
and immediately afterwards. Dr Ana Maria's statement added: "I must say that in terms of her attitude and behaviour, Leonor
Cipriano is one of the best prisoners that I have had for many years. She has not tried to commit suicide although she had
many opportunities to do so after the fateful interrogation. Leonor has always had an excellent relationship with all the
prison guards and the other prisoners, which has gone from strength to strength."
With a touch of humor, Dr Ana Calado
added that: "If your car had exploded this morning, I already know who would have been responsible!".
Our meeting
ended and it confirmed for me all the details of the excellent statement that Dr Ana Calado had already made in this
case.
No 6 John Cipriano, aged 38 years, the brother of Leonor and older by one year, says that he was tortured
separately, according to the same report, but the prison to which her brother was sent should now carry out the same steps
to gather evidence of assault as did the authorities at Odemira prison. John Cipriano wrote to Leonor, after
the two of them had been sentenced. He begged her to forgive him for all the lies he had told in court, which he had been
forced to come up with because of the torture of him. He asked his sister to forgive him for all these lies. No. 7
Leonor Cipriano tried to identify, at the request of prosecutors, the four or five detective inspectors that had tortured
her. Accordingly, she was transported to Évora in 2006 to try to recognise some of the torturers. She was invited to see if
she could identify up to six inspectors. Unfortunately, given the lapse of time, and the fact that she had often had
a bag over her head when attacked, she was unable to be certain of recognising any of the aggressors. The only thing
that Leonor was able to say with absolute certainty was that Gonçalo Amaral, then coordinator of the CID of Portimão, was
present throughout the interrogation, watching complacently while all the torture took place. Every time she was able
to open her eyes and every time she was beaten, Amaral was there, walking from one side to another without ever
trying to prevent any of the torture carried out by his subordinates. CONCLUSION Given the high degree
of credibility of the testimony of Leonor Cipriano, which is now not only supported by her brother John Cipriano, but also
by Anthony David Leandro Silva, her partner and father of her two youngest children, and above all by the absolutely credible
testimony of the Director of Odemira Prison, Dr. Ana Maria Calado, and in fact supported by medical expertise, I
believe this is a case where there is clear prima facie evidence of a crime of torture perpetrated by officials of the Portuguese
Judicial Police on Leonor Cipriano. It is completely unacceptable that officials of the Policia Judiciara continue
to use medieval methods to obtain confessions at all costs, even if they are false. Remember that during the Spanish Inquisition
600 years ago, you would have been tortured to death if you refused to admit that you were guilty of witchcraft. This
behaviour from one of the key organs of the state - from police officers of the national Judiciary Police - is highly detrimental
to the image of Portugal, which is now completely under the rule of law, is now an active a member of the European Union,
and a defender of human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Such medieval conduct should be thoroughly
dealt with in case it deals a further blow to the trust of Portuguese and foreign citizens in the Portuguese legal system.
In fact an authority such as the Policia Judiciara, given that it is responsible for ensuring that people comply with
the law, has a much increased duty, compared with the ordinary citizen, to set an example of complying with the law. The crime
of these inspectors has special moral and legal considerations. We need to re-establish and maintain the parameters
of the rule of law that constitutionally enshrine democratic Portugal. Unless this Cipriano case is dealt with properly, there
is a risk that our country could once again be ranked, nationally and internationally, as a fascist country, as has already
been insinuated in some foreign newspapers. We can not fail to highlight the parallels between the cases of the disappearance
of Joana Cipriano and that of Madeleine McCann. Both disappeared a few miles away from each other, and both cases were investigated
by the same Department of Criminal Investigation of Portimão's Judicial Police. In the first case, no valid evidence
was collected against Leonor Cipriano. In the second case, there has been a succession of unpunished leakages of information
arising from the PJ's investigation. There have been repeated stories leaked to the national press where it refers to 'a PJ
source' or 'a source close to the investigation', and so forth. In the second case, that of Madeleine, there is, despite the
scattergun release of so-called 'information', absolutely no evidence against Kate and Gerry McCann. This was implicitly admitted
by the Director of the PJ himself, Alipio Ribero, when he declared that making the McCanns 'arguidos' was 'hasty'. By
contrast, the suspects, Kate and Gerry McCann, are prohibited from discussing the case to the press, preventing them from
exercising their legitimate right to defend themselves against slander promoted all the time by so-called 'sources close to
the investigation'. Read for example the appalling article written by the Fondation Princesse de Croÿ, with the very
direct title: "Madeleine McCann possibly eaten by Portuguese pigs" – (see http://fondationprincessedecroy.over-blog.org/article-12736754.html) This article reveals how in Canada the international image of the Portuguese judicial authorities and of
Portugal itself is being tarnished. It is therefore necessary that the Portuguese state eliminates once and for all
the persistent attacks on human rights that are still raging with impunity, especially in the Portguese police and amongst
those who claim to be agents of law and defenders of those rights at a national level. This should lead not only to
the punishment of the offenders, because that only indirectly prevents further abuse by the state authorities, but also to
our taking direct preventive action. We need to make a strong and pro-active effort to eliminate any development within
all the organs of the police authorities that are not the result of a genuine training in all the technical, disciplinary,
legal and moral components of modern policing, both in theory and practice.
I therefore submit to this court this new complaint about the case to all the relevant national authorities. I am also
submitting this complaint to the human rights organisations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
I conclude my report today by disseminating this vehement and emotional message of Leonor Cipriano, which was personally
written and signed by herself just today:
"I want my daughter Joana found, not only so that I can be with her once again, but also to show the world that it is
you - Gonçalo Amaral and the inspectors of the Policia Judiciaria - who tortured me and who are the real monsters in this
case". 8-4-2008. Leonor Cipriano. No. 34.
It is better for there to be some guilty people in freedom, than for there to be one innocent in prison.
Portimão,
08 April 2008
The Reporter,
Marcos Aragão Correia,
Attorney (Professional lawyer identity document No.427M), and ACED lawyer (Association Against Exclusion for
Development).
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The Trial of the PJ Inspectors: The head of the Lawyer's Bar Marinho Pinto cannot use the Lawyer's
Order for his personal wars, 29 October 2008
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| Rogério Alves, McCanns legal representative and Marinho Pinto, head of the Lawyer's Bar |
The Trial of the PJ Inspectors: The head of the Lawyer's Bar Marinho Pinto cannot use the Lawyer's Order for
his personal wars Dr. José Maria Martins
By Lawyer José Maria Martins
29 October 2008
Thanks to Joana Morais for translation
The Lawyer's Order has made the
wrong decision in becoming assistant in the Process of Leonor Cipriano.
Those who have a minimum of experience regarding
the actions of the Judicial Police do not believe that the inspectors would ever attack Leonor Cipriano causing her the
bruises shown in the photographs.
This process seems to be deliberately staged to attack the Portuguese Police, to
attack Portuguese Justice.
If the Inspectors were to be convicted, Portugal would be denigrated at all levels.
Greater
evilness is only that done by US troops in Iraq and in Guantanamo.
Greater evilness is only that practised by
Napoleon's troops, who in Portugal, killed, raped, stole, going to the point of, in just one afternoon, killing more than
2 thousand people in the City of Évora alone!
The Lawyer's Order should maintain the impartiality necessary in order
to avoid jeopardising the Portuguese lawyers, in this venture to provide a lawyer to help the defence of Leonor Cipriano.
Nevertheless,
I would accept that the Lawyer's Order collaborated in the investigation regarding the destiny of the small child, Joana,
who disappeared and is dead.
The head of the bar does not have my support in this matter. Quite the opposite, it is
my belief that Dr. Marinho Pinto has done a disservice to Law - another one, another service - using the Lawyer's Order.
I
am sure, since a long time, that the PJ inspectors will be absolved and that the Order will emerge weakened.
The Masonry
and the United Kingdom would definitely enjoy the conviction of the Inspectors.
What a present for Gordon Brown!
There the
news would run throughout the world that the investigators of the Portuguese PJ, those who "upset" Maddie's parents, weren't
cops after all but TORTURERS!!!
Not even in Burundi would this be acceptable!
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Cipriano Case: Amaral suing Leonor's lawyer, 29 October 2008 |
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Marcos Aragão Pinto responds with judicial action
29 October 2008 - 15h30
Thanks to Joana Morais for translation
Gonçalo Amaral's lawyer is going to move ahead with a counter suit against the defense for Leonor Cipriano for having
confirmed that Joana's stepfather, Leandro Silva, knew a week beforehand that the ex-inspector of PJ was going to be fired.
In
the second day of court in Faro, António Cabrita claimed he wanted to understand if Leandro Silva had access to this information,
allegedly put forth by the British Police.
In response, Leonor Cipriano's lawyer, Marcos Aragão Pinto, announced that
he was going to sue Gonçalo Amaral for false declarations, because he affirmed in the first hearings that he didn't know of
any other process against him. According to the lawyer, the ex-inspector for PJ "is lying" because Leandro Silva had served
a process against him for statements made to the press.
Wednesday's session was marked by the presentation of various
requests by the attorneys which filled the entire morning and delayed the hearing.
NEW
WITNESSES REFUSED
The court decided to deny a request from Marcos Aragão Pinto to call 12 new witnesses,
including the ex-national PJ director, Alípio Ribeiro, a specialist from Legal Medicine, José Pinto da Costa and the criminologist
José Barra da Costa.
The collective judges eventually accepted just one witness, Ana Maria Calado, Prison Director in Odemira where Leonor
Cipriano is jailed, but this was at the request of the attorney in defense of four of the five inspectors.
António
Pragal Colaço also asked that the photographs wherein are displayed the alleged marks from the aggressions suffered by Leonor
Cipriano would be sealed and subject to skilled computer inspection, but the court denied that request.
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Joana Case: Crime of rape ignored to save money, 29 October 2008 |
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29 October 2009
Joana Cipriano was eight years old when she was last seen, on the 12th of September 2004, around 20h30. The little
girl went on an errand on her mother's behalf to a nearby coffee shop in the Algarve village of Figueira, and never returned.
Joana's stepfather refused to participate in an analysis of the sperm found on the little girl's knickers
to prove whether or not there was a crime of rape. The PJ gave up undertaking the examination in the US to save
10 thousand Euros.
After Joana Cipriano's stepfather, Leandro Silva, refused to give a sample of his semen for the analysis, the National
Institute of Forensic Medicine suggested to the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) the making of a DNA test in the US.
However, the 'indication was not followed' by the Judiciary due to the amounts involved,
10 thousand Euros, as advanced by Correio da Manhã today. The PJ explained to the newspaper that the archival was made 'because even if it is proved that the sperm belongs to the suspect he can still allege that he cleaned his
penis on the child's knickers'.
We recall that the police found in Leonor Cipriano's daughter's knickers, semen. Only an analysis would shed light regarding
the crime of rape of the Figueira's child.
Joana's mother was convicted to 16 years in jail for the crime of homicide of her daughter, jointly done with her
brother, uncle of the little girl who disappeared in September 2004 from the village of Figueira, in Portimão.
This week follows in court the trial of five elements of the Polícia Judiciária accused of acts of torture to Leonor
Cipriano, in October 2004, which happened during the interrogations of Joana's mother with the objective of getting a
confession.
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Integrity of G. Amaral questioned in police brutality case, 30 October 2008
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