Thirteen defendants of the twenty-eight defendants of “Operation Mirror”, carried out by the Judiciary Police (PJ), were placed in preventive detention by the Criminal Investigation Judges of the courts of Cuba and Évora.
Twelve were given three-weekly performances and banned from leaving the country and two others were subject to identity and residence terms. (TIR). One individual was released without any charges.
From the Cuba process, whose measures were known in the Court of Beja, five men and two women, six Romanians and one Portuguese, were subject to the most severe measure, accused of committing 21 crimes, particularly human trafficking, criminal association, illegal immigration aid association, recruitment of illegal labor, possession of a prohibited weapon and document forgery.
As for the remaining twelve defendants, including the two accountants, are subject to periodic presentations three times a week, ban on leaving the country and surrender of passport and ban on contact with the other defendants, victims and workers of the defendants listed in the records. The twenty-eighth was released without any indictment, not having been made a defendant.
Regarding the process instructed in Évora, six defendants were remanded in pre-trial detention, all accused of the same crimes as those detained in Cuba, and two released through TIR, all being of foreign nationality.
Over the three days in which the hearings of the twenty defendants took place,, in Cuba and Beja, These were marked by protests from family members and workers of the main suspects who demanded the release of the detainees because in their opinion “they did not mistreat anyone, helped everyone. We were out of work, Without help, with nothing”, guaranteeing on the posters they held that “we are not slaves” or “we have never been deceived”.
“Operation Mirror” was carried out last Tuesday in the municipalities of Cuba, Ferreira do Alentejo and Vidigueira, by the National Counter Terrorism Unit (UNCT) da PJ, and which resulted in the arrest of twenty-eight people.
Rui Esteves (lawyer)
“I defend two defendants, of a Romanian couple, who was in custody. Most of the evidence collected is largely based on statements for future memory and telephone tapping.. Preventive prisoners are those indicted for the most active participation in the network.”
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
