Ten months in prison, suspended for one year, was the penalty applied to Vítor Ramalho, a former elected member of the Chega party, at the Parish Council of Póvoa de São Miguel, in the municipality of Moura, for shots fired during an altercation with a Kurdish citizen with a Swiss passport.
The accused, of 56 year old, was accused of the crime of simple murder, the attempted form, using a firearm, but, was convicted of the crime of aggravated threat. The Panel of Judges of the Beja Court considered that “it has not been proven that he fired shots in the direction of the victim, not even your van, so there was no intention to kill”, supported the president.
After being presented to a Criminal Instruction Judge, the Court of Moura, for first interrogation and, have been freed, the defendant sold the 13 firearms he owned, to a gunsmith, in Monte Trigo, county Portel. During the reading of the ruling, the judge maintained that the weapons “will be returned. Not to you, but, to the armorer”, concluded.
“Behavior like what happened, are unacceptable and reprehensible, as well as very serious. The fine penalty was not adjusted to the seriousness of the facts.”, maintained the judge.
The event took place on 8 October 2021, that area Alentejo, following an altercation with Hemin Mohammed, of 41 year old, with Vítor Ramalho firing two shots, having confirmed this occurrence in court, justifying that “it was not in his direction, not even the little face that drove it”, the defendant then maintained.
Speaking to journalists, Pedro Mendonça, the defense lawyer, was once again very caustic towards the Judiciary Police (PJ), justifying that “they pasted an image of an individual to a political party (read Enough), transporting the atmosphere of the Assembly of the Republic to the life of a citizen”, concluded. The lawyer added that his client “had a reprehensible attitude, but, the Collective of Judges knew how to distinguish the two types of crimes in question, homicide and threat. The decision met my expectations”, justified.
There should be no appeal against the decision, since in the trial the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) defended the thesis that “it has not been proven that there was an intention to kill on the part of the defendant”, held that he should be punished for an aggravated offense, what came to pass.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
