VIP group files criminal complaint, saying “chega” (enough!)
A group of citizens, including former Justice Minister Francisca Van Dunem, is filing a criminal complaint against CHEGA leader André Ventura and the party’s parliamentary leader Pedro Pinto, for statements related to the death this week of Odair Moniz at the hands of police.
At issue is the comment made by Pedro Pinto on television – and referring to the riots of recent days around the capital – saying that if the security forces “shot more to kill, the country would be more in order”.
Ventura has also said of the PSP agent who shot Moniz: “We shouldn’t make this man an accused; we should thank this policeman for the work he did. We should decorate him and not make him an accused, threaten to prosecute him or threaten to arrest him.”
According to the group’s draft criminal complaint, to which Diário de Notícias (DN) has had access, the main offences are ‘instigation to commit a crime’, ‘apology for committing a crime’ and ‘incitement to collective disobedience’.
Francisca Van Dunem, a former Minister of Justice, former Socialist Minister of Internal Affairs and former Prosecutor General of the Lisbon district said in a statement to Diário de Notícias “a limit has been reached”.
“A limit has been reached. No democrat can fail to be outraged by these statements. My conscience obliges me to take a stand against those who take advantage of this climate to call for hatred and more violence. I am going to sign the complaint, which I hope will be signed by as many people as possible,” she said.
With regard to Pedro Pinto’s statement, the complaint states that they constitute ‘the apology of a crime:
“The suspect Pedro Pinto encouraged – and knows that he did so – agents of the security forces to improperly use the weapons given to them by the Portuguese Republic, on behalf of all citizens, to kill other fellow citizens on the public highway, through summary executions that are prohibited by the Constitution and by all international texts in defence of human rights”.
The document quoted by DN also states that “suspect André Ventura is very familiar with the legal regime governing the carrying and use of firearms by the security forces, not only because he has a doctorate in law, but also because he is a member of parliament and participates in legislative decision-making”.
It also states that André Ventura “(…) knows that by publicly praising a police act that led to the death of a citizen (…) he creates the conviction among people who do not have specialised legal knowledge that the security forces can use firearms whenever a citizen disrespects an order issued by them, including an arrest order”.
For this reason, the signatories believe that André Ventura, like Pedro Pinto, wanted to encourage “disorder and disobedience on the part of security force agents towards their superiors”, committing the crime of “incitement to collective disobedience”.
The criminal complaint also highlights the statements made by Ricardo Reis, a parliamentary advisor to the party, who said on the social network X on 23 October: “The only word is this: thank you to the officer who made the streets safer!” and “one less criminal… one less elected Bloco [Left] member”.
Reis fairly quickly deleted these comments, but not before they had been ‘copied’ and pasted in outrage by various cybernauts.
The criminal complaint joins personalities from across the political spectrum. They include social democrat and commentator João Maria Jonet, commentators Daniel Oliveira and Pedro Marques Lopes, former PSD vice-president André Coelho Lima and PS MP Isabel Moreira.
Source material: LUSA
