Judges deliver effective custodial sentences for army doctor and instructor
The agonisingly long process by families who lost two fit young men in appalling circumstances on a Commandos training course almost eight years ago has finally seen effective jail terms delivered for two of the original defendants suspected of not having done enough to save the lives of Dylan Silva and Huge Abreu, both aged 20, and suspended sentences for five others.
Defence lawyer Ricardo Sá Fernandes told Lusa, “this decision radically alters the terms of the sentence in the first instance (meaning the first court hearing) and does the justice that the parents have long been awaiting (…) It was worth not giving up and fighting to the end”, he added.
According to reports, however, this may not be the end. In fact, it most certainly isn’t: the two army personnel convicted of crimes of abuse of authority through offences to physical integrity have both intimated that they will be appealing to the Supreme Court, as have “several other defendants who have gone from being absolved to condemned to suspended sentences”.
But it has been an enormous step in terms of a court having recognised the wrong that the families of the two dead soldiers feel was done to their loved ones.
Readers may not recall this horrible story. It can be read here.
Initially, 19 military men were charged over the young men’s deaths, and almost all were absolved by a lower court, with only three receiving suspended sentences.
Two of these suspended sentences have now been ‘reversed’, with the doctor/ captain Miguel Domingues condemned to seven years and four months behind bars, and sergeant instructor Ricardo Rodrigues to five years and three months.
Other figures, including the director of the course lieutenant colonel Mário Maia, were slapped with jail terms, suspended.
“The court ruled that Mário Maia “acted with conscious negligence”, with “direct intent in relation to the omission of appropriate acts to prevent injuries to the physical integrity of all the trainees, and particularly (…) in relation to the trainees who died as a result of the ordeals that took place until 4pm on September 4, 2016”, writes Lusa.
As for the doctor, Miguel Domingues, he has been sentenced to two six-year prison terms for each of the crimes of abuse of authority and offense to physical integrity of which he was accused, resulting in the cumulative sentence of seven years and six months.
Judges found that Miguel Domingues “neglected his duty” and “ignored all the symptoms of illness that he saw happening in the trainees”, who ended up dying as a result of heat stroke during what was known as a ‘prova zero’, conducted in blistering temperatures (one of the hottest days of that summer). As far as has been explained, prova zero meant that exercises had to be performed without recruits being allowed any water.
The court also sentenced course instructors Hugo Pereira and Ricardo Rodrigues, the former to two years in prison, suspended for three years, for a crime of abuse of authority by offense to physical integrity, and the latter to five years and three months in prison for the same crime, effective.
Sergeant Messias Carvalho was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison, suspended for four years, for the crime of abuse of authority by offense to physical integrity.
Pedro Fernandes, a lieutenant in the army, had his sentence increased to a single suspended sentence of four years and three months, “for committing two crimes of abuse of authority by offense to physical integrity, (…) in the sentences of two years and three months in prison for the crime committed against Jorge Silva and three years in prison for the crime against Dylan Silva”.
Military officer Lenate Inácio saw the court confirm his conviction to two years in prison, suspended for two years, for the crime of abuse of authority by offense to physical integrity, while defendants Rui Pedro Monteiro and Miguel Almeida were acquitted and the remaining acquittals from the first trial upheld.
A total of eight officers, eight sergeants and three non-commissioned officers, all from the Commandos, most of them instructors, were originally accused of abuse of authority through offences to physical integrity. According to the indictment, the defendants acted with “manifest disregard for the serious consequences they caused the offended“.
Some reports stress that one of the judges hearing this appeal wanted the effective jail terms to be much higher, for the “lack of remorse shown“.
