Head of Navy fined €816 for obstructing NRP Mondego trial
Admiral Jorge Nobre de Sousa was ordered to pay €816 after the Portuguese Navy failed to notify witnesses for the NRP Mondego trial.
Court condemns Navy chief for "obstruction" of justice in Mondego case
Admiral Jorge Nobre de Sousa, Chief of Staff of the Navy, was ordered on Tuesday, 16 June, to pay a financial penalty of €816 after the Portuguese Navy failed to notify two witnesses to appear in court. The decision is contained in a ruling to which the Diário de Notícias had access.
According to the judicial ruling handed down on 4 May, Nobre de Sousa had been made responsible for notifying military personnel Vasco Pires and Filipa Pinto to give evidence on Wednesday, 17 June, at 9.30 a.m., in the context of the NRP Mondego case. The Head of the Navy "failed to act in compliance".
Judge Maria Godinho, of the Judicial Court of the Lisbon District, considered that "the procedural conduct assumed by the Portuguese Navy seriously compromises the regular functioning of the service of this court, affects intensely the image of efficiency, promptness and rigour that the citizen expects of both institutions" and constitutes "an attempt to compromise the duty of compliance with court orders and the authority of the courts".
The magistrate also characterised the situation as a "reprehensible and unjustified omission of the duty to cooperate with the court" and "an equally intolerable obstruction of the action of justice".
The fine corresponds to eight units of account, set at €102 each, totalling €816. The court also annulled the hearings scheduled for 17 and 24 June, with no date set for the next session of the trial.
In the ruling, the judge invokes article 205, paragraph 2, of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, which provides that "decisions of the courts are binding on all public and private entities and prevail over those of any other authorities". She also cites paragraph 3 of article 275 of the Constitution, which requires that "the Armed Forces obey the competent sovereign bodies, in accordance with the Constitution and the law".
Repeated pattern of notification failures
The defence attorney, António Garcia Pereira, told dn.pt that the presiding judge "considered, in our view rightly, that the procedural conduct of the Navy seriously compromises the regular functioning of the service of the Court" and that this "constitutes an attempt to compromise the duty of compliance with court orders and the authority of the courts".
Garcia Pereira recalled that the first trial session, scheduled for 22 April, could not take place because the Navy failed to bring the immediate superior of the ship, claiming that she was on board the frigate Álvares Cabral and requesting that she be heard via WhatsApp. The defence objected and the judge postponed the trial to 6 May, ordering that the two witnesses be heard in person.
"What happened was that on 4 May, practically at the time the Court closed, the Navy sent an order saying that the immediate superior was on board the Álvares Cabral and that she would not attend", stressed the attorney, who characterised the situation as "unacceptable for any citizen, even more so for a military institution and for the top leadership of the military institution".
The crime of breach of state secrecy
The trial in question involves three of the 13 military personnel who, in March 2023, refused to board the Portuguese Republic Ship (NRP) Mondego. The military are accused by the Public Prosecution Service of the crime of breach of state secrecy, for allegedly having publicly disclosed reserved information about the technical conditions of the ship, with knowledge of its confidential nature.
In the indictment, the Public Prosecution Service maintains that the NRP Mondego "possessed the capacity to put to sea, albeit with some degraded conditions" — including cracks in the deck, an inoperational engine and a malfunction in the engine cooling pump — and that, should "conditions impossible to complete a mission" arise, the commander could decide to return to port".
The next trial date has not yet been set.
Source: Google News PT