Three individuals wielding pistols kidnapped six people in São Teotónio (Odemira). They were acquitted of these crimes. Two of the three defendants remain in prison..
On 20 March last year, three individuals, aged 28 and 37 year old, pistol in hand, they burst into a house located in São Teotónio, county of Odemira, having first kidnapped two women and three minors, two boys and a girl, to frighten the victims one of the women was beaten with a staff.
When the husband and father of three of the abductees opened the door of the residence, he was surprised by one of the individuals who pointed a pistol in his face.. Then they put him in a room where they tied him up and beat him.
After the trial, the Panel of judges decided to acquit the defendants of committing all the crimes of which they were accused., having convicted them of committing, in material co-authorship, two crimes of robbery in the attempted form. When they entered the room, the defendants shouted and asked: "Where is the money ? Where's the drug ?".
The defendants Ricardo Guerreiro, of 30 year old, and Álvaro Tavares, of 28 year old, were sentenced to a sentence of two years for each of the crimes and, in addition to the legal penalty, a single sentence of three years in prison., remain in pre-trial detention.
Valeriano Pinheiro, of 37 year old, was sentenced to a sentence of one year and six months in prison for each of the crimes and a legal maximum of two years in prison, suspended from execution for the same period, the preventive detention measure pending on him having been declared terminated, having been restored to liberty.
Two of the victims will each receive, 500 euros as civil compensation arbitration.
The individuals were detained by the Setúbal Judicial Police five months after the crimes, after authorities viewed images from the video surveillance system of a hypermarket and a gas station, which proved to be essential for identifying the robbers and subsequently detaining them, who arrived at the scene of the robbery, in three vehicles.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
