Four out of eight foreigners arrested ‘red handed’ have escaped justice
“What everyone feared ended up happening”, writes Correio da Manhã, regarding the judicial ‘hitch’ that freed a number of people arrested for serious crimes over the long Bank Holiday stretch taking in April 25 commemorations.
At least four of eight drug traffickers released from police custody (due to judicial strikes on either side of April 25) have fled the country. This in spite of the fact that the releasing judge insisted on them handing in their passports.
CM explains that two couples, caught arriving in Lisbon airport carrying cocaine, left Portugal by road, making for the Brazilian embassy/ consulate in Madrid, where they requested new passports (on the basis that they had ‘lost theirs’) and “quickly managed to take return flights to their home country”.
This leaves four people now waiting to be ‘summoned to court’ when the time allows. One has had to be treated in hospital (due to a cocaine balloon that had ‘burst’ in her body).
Meantime, new court strikes have been planned, this time for May 7 and 8. The issue with these strikes is that they can leave prosecutors with no alternative but to ‘free’ people held on bail, in the hope that they will not ‘leave the country’ or otherwise go to ground.
