Former director, guards chief and seven guards under fire
Breaking news this lunchtime is that the Ministry of Justice has decided to launch nine disciplinary proceedings following the daylight jailbreak of five inmates from Vale de Judeus high security prison in September.
The proceedings target former director Rui Abrunhosa Gonçalves (who resigned in the wake of this PR disaster), the guards chief (so far unnamed) and seven regular prison guards.
According to the statement released by the Ministry of Justice, the initiation of disciplinary proceedings was recommended by the report drawn up by the Audit and Inspection Service (SAI) of the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services (DGRSP), which was delivered to the ministry last week (on October 17).
The note from the Ministry of Justice also highlights the opening of two autonomous inquiries: one into the prison commissioner, for the ‘failure to implement a security measure and a situation of prolonged absenteeism’; and another into the Directorate of Security Services ‘to assess its functioning and capacity to respond to situations of this nature’.
The Ministry of Justice has also sent a certificate to the competent authorities to determine disciplinary responsibilities in relation to GNR agents regarding “the conditions in which images of events in the Vale de Judeus prison were given to the media without authorisation”.
How this all ‘goes down’ with prison guards is another matter (and will no doubt come clear later today: see update below).
The syndicate representing prison guards wasted no time following this incident to highlight the ‘decades of neglect’ perpetuated by successive governments which they believe contributed to the security breach.
Prisoners break out of Portuguese jails with some frequency – some being caught very quickly afterwards, others not.
In this case, one of the escapees is already ‘back behind bars’ in Morocco and due to be extradited to Portugal imminently.
UPDATE: Frederico Morais, president of the National Union of Prison Guard Corps (SNCGP) has welcomed the fact that today’s announcement has “ruled out any possible complicity of the guards in the escape of the five inmates”. He also appears comfortable with the fact that the former prisons director, along with the chief of guards, have been included in the “attribution of responsibility”. He believes this shows that his syndicate “was right to say that the number of guards on duty on the day of the escape was insufficient”.
As to the seven guards targeted, he said the union “will now wait for the disciplinary part” before making any further commentary. ND
Source material: LUSA
