Trial of PSP officer accused of torturing Ukrainian immigrant postponed for third time in Beja
The Beja Court has again postponed the trial of a PSP officer accused of assaulting a Ukrainian worker in 2019, due to difficulties in notifying foreign witnesses.
Beja Court suspends PSP officer's trial for torture of Ukrainian for third time
The Beja Court postponed on Wednesday, for the third consecutive time, the start of a new trial of a PSP officer accused of assaulting and torturing a Ukrainian agricultural worker in November 2019, according to Correio da Manhã. The cause of the new postponement is the impossibility of notifying prosecution witnesses who are no longer in Portugal.
The first hearing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The judge called the defendant, his lawyer and the defence witnesses into the courtroom to announce the cancellation of the session. No new date for the trial has yet been set.
Untranslated letter rogatory impedes progress of the case
The judge explained that it was not possible to translate in time a letter rogatory intended to notify the foreign prosecution witnesses. "It is proving difficult" to contact them, she said, adding that the court decided to resort to "mechanisms of international judicial cooperation, through letters rogatory".
The immediate obstacle was the translation of the document: "the interpreter invoked difficulties" with this work, said the judge, who determined that the translation be completed so that the letter can be sent. "I cannot proceed without being certain whether or not the witnesses have been notified," she emphasised.
The two previous sessions, scheduled for 13 May and 14 January of this year, also did not take place, likewise due to difficulties in questioning witnesses.
Évora Court of Appeal annulled previous trial in 2024
This new trial was ordered by the Évora Court of Appeal (TRE), which, in a ruling of 10 September 2024, declared the previous trial and its respective sentence null and void. The TRE ordered that the new proceedings commence with the questioning of witnesses called by the prosecution.
In the ruling, consulted by the Lusa agency, the TRE emphasised that "the circumstance that most of the witnesses named in the prosecution are in Ukraine, a country which, as is known, is at war, with all the difficulties that entail, does not prevent, cannot prevent, that the court proceed with all necessary steps to question them, in whatever form, necessarily at a distance".
On 18 January 2023, the Beja Court had acquitted the PSP officer of the crimes of torture and other cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment. During that trial, the judge refused to allow the alleged victim and a witness, both in Ukraine, to give evidence by videoconference. The court also failed to notify some of the witnesses, and those who responded to the notification were absent from the sessions.
The facts of the accusation: early morning of November 2019 in Beja
The case dates back to the early morning of 12 November 2019. The officer approached a group of 11 immigrants — 10 Ukrainians and one Romanian — who were waiting for transport to work in Beja, and asked them for identification.
According to the indictment dispatch, consulted by Lusa, the officer called the immigrants offensive and abusive names. He handcuffed one of them and took him to the Traffic Police Station, where, in an adjoining area, he made him "remain kneeling on the ground" and questioned him with "pulling and shoving".
The officer, described in the accusation as "more agitated and irritated", allegedly then struck the Ukrainian worker with "kicks, blows with his fists and using a rigid object in the shape of a baton". In pain and feeling unwell, the victim went to the hospital's emergency department.
Source: Correio da Manhã