In what has been a truly shambolic process, authorities are finally on the trail of the Algarve’s ‘killer nurse’ – condemned to 23 years behind bars for the hideous murder and dismemberment of a ‘friend’ of her former lover (who has since committed suicide).
Reports today claim that Mariana Fonseca is now “on the list of fugitives sought by Interpol throughout the world”.
Why she was able to leave Portugal ‘in plain sight’ of all judicial/ security authorities is just one of those vagaries of the Portuguese legal system: her appeal against her 23-year jail sentence was rejected by Évora Appeal Court in May, but the court in Portimão that originally heard the case only issued an arrest warrant in July (by which time, the 29- year-old was ‘long gone’ from the addresses that police had on file).
Making matters ‘worse’ somehow is the fact that PJ (judicial police) apparently warned of the likelihood that Fonseca would ‘disappear’, but as the arrest warrant wasn’t passed to them on emission, their hands were tied.
Since then, Mariana Fonseca has made a video insisting that she is innocent and will ‘fight’ her conviction (from parts unknown). Her lawyer has already lodged an appeal against the 23-year sentence, alleging ‘errors in the judgement’, with the European Court of Human Rights.
Fonseca is not the first ‘fugitive from justice’ to skip the country before the legal system caught up with itself – and she probably won’t be the last. Authorities appear to accept that she will have had help planning her ‘escape’ and she may well continue to be receiving help.
This is just the latest ‘disgrace’ in a case that shocked the nation five years ago: initially, Mariana Fonseca was absolved of wrong-doing in the murder and dismemberment of IT engineer Diogo Gonçalves. Judges decided the horrific crime had been cooked-up entirely by her then girlfriend Maria Malveiro, who had ‘done everything herself’. Maria received a maximum jail term of 25 years – and committed suicide shortly afterwards. Fonseca, however, was ‘free’ while public prosecutors lodged the appeal that was to be successful – and during that freedom she managed to sue her former employers (Lagos Hospital) for wrongful dismissal, apparently receiving €30,000.
Tabloid Correio da Manhã has closely followed this story, believing Mariana Fonseca always knew she would eventually be convicted, and thus started planning her escape in good time.
Other news outlets simply comment today “the soap opera continues”.
Whether Interpol will catch up with the wily young lady, who by now may even have managed a completely new identity, we will all wait to see. Writing in CM yesterday, reporter Tânia Laranjo said this is a story that “seems absurd, but says a lot of the time in which we live. She had time for everything (…) nothing was left to chance. The crime was conceived with exquisite malice; the escape with ice-cold arrogance. Mariana proved that justice is not for everyone. A sweet, well-trained, voice can be a great deal more effective than bars and prison terms. She is still free while justice is shackled by rules that do not protect, do not anticipate, do not impede. Those who failed to foresee the obvious are rarely called to account for it. And those who kill without remorse will never sit around waiting to be taken to prison.”
Source: Correio da Manhã
