It has been described by the family of football fan Marco Ficini – who was mowed down in gang violence outside the Benfica stadium last year – as “yet another body blow”.
The man who allegedly drove the Renault Clio at Ficini at high speed, “dragging his body 15 metres” before leaving him for dead, has been released due to the fact that he has been held in preventive custody without trial for too long.
Explain reports, “Justice has delayed in appreciating a request for proceedings”.
Said the dead man’s brother Andrea: “We didn’t expect this from the Portuguese authorities…How could they have allowed the time for remaining in jail to lapse? Why? In respect for our brother who was brutally murdered in Lisbon, the killer should wait for the judges’ decision in jail”.
But Luís Pina is ‘long gone’ from such constraints. He was released last week on the understanding that he reports daily to police, has no contact with the other 22 ‘arguidos’ in the case and does not enter any of the premises of either Benfica football club, or its ‘rival’ Sporting.
Says tabloid Correio da Manhã, Pina has been allowed however to keep his passport “even though he is of Cape Verdian origin.
“This is because, technically, there has been no alteration to his bail terms”.
Pina is accused of five crimes of murder, adds the paper “one consummated and four attempted”.
The Public Ministry’s case is that he ran over Ficini – an Italian born British citizen (click here) – “dragging the body for 15 metres” and stopping the car only “after he had completely passed over the victim’s body”. He then allegedly drove away from the scene, failing to give any kind of help.
Pina’s defence, writes Lusa, is that he “never had any intention” to run Ficini, over “even less to kill a human being”.
The situation was chaotic with rival gangs attacking each other with metal bars and paving stones.
Communications director of Sporting Nuno Saraiva has described this latest development as “scandalous” and “shameful” – the kind of legal glitch that “only happens in third world countries”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
