The Public Ministry (MP) de Beja acknowledged the error in the first indictment, and accused the suspected couple of having committed two crimes of murder and one of robbery, all qualified. The trial is Tuesday, each risking the maximum sentence.
In a first order signed by the MP Attorney, in 9 November last year, the magistrate accused Fernando Belmonte, of 54 years and Mónica Lourenço, of 38 year old, of a crime of homicide despite the fact that in Quinta do Paraíso Janedi, in Baleizão, bodies were discovered, already in an advanced state of decomposition of the German couple, Jan Otto, of 79 years and Ilse Ediltraud, of 71 year old.
In a new order dated 17 November, the judge assumes that “the signatory made a mistake in writing, for which one penances, reproducing the duly corrected order closing the investigation”, starting to accuse the couple Fernando and Mónica of two crimes of qualified homicide.
The murder of the septuagenarian couple occurred on the day 16 April last year, when they were last seen in Baleizão, but the bodies were only discovered 10 May, after an alert from the victims' son who was unable to contact his parents.
The GNR went to the scene and as the residents showed no sign of life, they informed the 112 who called the firefighters “to open a door”, discovering the couple in an advanced state of decomposition inside their home.
Fernando and Mónica were arrested on the day 12 May 2023, in Aljustrel, by inspectors of South Directorate of the Judicial Police, and the following day they were present at the first interrogation, to a Criminal Investigation Judge of the Beja Court, which applied the most severe measure of coercion to them.
The man is in preventive detention at the Prison Establishment (EP) by Beja and his wife in Odemira's EP, with the trial scheduled for next Tuesday at 09,30 hours non Court of Beja, with the participation of a Collective of Judges.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
