The individuals were accused of having exploited several compatriots on farms in the municipality of Serpa.. Two of the defendants were in pre-trial detention..
Five Asian defendants, four Indians and one Pakistani, aged between 28 and 55 year old, were acquitted by a panel of judges of the Beja Court of co-authorship of eleven crimes, eight being human trafficking, one of criminal association, one for illegal immigration assistance and one for illegal immigration assistance association.
With the decision to acquit Gurjit Singh, Amandeep Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Sukhpal Kaur Brar and Muhammad Ashraf also “fell†the prosecution's claims (MP) de Beja, who in the indictment asked for the conviction of an accessory penalty of expulsion from the national territory for the four Indians, in addition to requests for forfeiture of products and advantages in favor of the State of 296.209,47 euros and the extended loss of assets worth 271.451,23 euros. The company Surprise Erudite Unipessoal, Lda, controlada por Sukhpal Kaur Brar, a woman 29 year old, was also acquitted of the offenses she was accused of in view of the acquittal of her manager.
The process took a turn in the past day 25 of October when in the closing arguments, the Prosecutor of the MP of Beja has asked for the acquittal of all the defendants, immediately having Gurjit Singh's lawyers, of 34 year old, and Amandeep Singh, of 28 year old, both prisoners of the Prison of Beja, submitted an application that led to their immediate release
The investigation of the Aliens and Borders Service (SEF) and titled by the Criminal Investigation and Action Department (DIAP) of Évora allowed to dismantle, what the prosecution called a criminal organization, on 30 June 2021, which operated from the locality of Serra da Luz, in Pontinha, municipality of Lisbon and was operational in Serpa, Muhammad Ashraf, of 48 year old, the only Pakistani.
Amandeep Singh, one of the main people involved in the process was held in preventive detention at the Munich-Stadelheim Detention Center, in Germany, to the orders of process related to the transport of citizens of illegal Hindu origin in Europe. European Arrest Warrants were issued, forwarded to the Judicial Authorities in Germany, the individual having been extradited to Portugal, but now he is free.
In the judgment handed down last day 4 November to which JN had access, the Panel of Judges maintains that only two workers, of the many pointed out as exploited by the group, were heard at trial and that “all the rest of the facts disclosed in the indictment, are transcripts that were made before the Criminal Police Agency (OPC), whose reading is forbidden to the judge, constituting this accusatory technique an ability to circumvent such a situationâ€., supported the magistrates.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
