The shock acquittal earlier this year of all six defendants in the dock over the Borba quarry disaster has seen ‘surprise’ today as Évora appeal court judges order a retrial.
This was, however, ‘only to be expected’, given that public prosecutors said in the original trial that “justice will only be done if all six defendants are convicted”.
The disaster, which claimed the lives of five men on a road known for its fragilities, saw the families of the victims compensated by the Portuguese state to the tune of €1.6 million.
Today, the lawyer representing two of the former council officials (former mayor António Anselmo and his former deputy Joaquim Espanhol) cited for manslaughter by omission “rejected any attribution of responsibility for the accident” and said he hoped the new trial will recognise this.
In a written response sent to Lusa news agency, lawyer Silvino Fernandes said “the defendants and the defence were surprised by the decision handed down” by the Évora Court of Appeal (TRE) (…) The defendants continue to regret the accident, but believe that no responsibility can be attributed to them.”
He said the defendants and the defence are “faced with a fait accompli” – alluding to “the annulment of the entire trial and its repetition in the criminal court, by a new panel of judges.”
“With the decision to repeat all the evidence to be produced, the defendants will give statements, just as they did in the annulled trial…”
Silvino Fernandes declined to comment on the legal issues that served as the basis for the annulment, noting that the TRE decision is not subject to appeal.
According to Lusa, the panel of female judges argued that the initial ruling presented “an irreconcilable contradiction in the reasoning behind the decision and a clear error in the assessment of the evidence”.
The remaining defendants are employees of the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG), Bernardino Piteira and José Pereira, each indicted for two counts of manslaughter by omission; the quarry company, whose manager has since died; and its technical manager, Paulo Alves, each indicted for 10 counts of violating safety regulations.
It was just over seven years ago, during the afternoon of November 19, 2018, that a section of approximately 100 meters of the EM (municipal road) 255 collapsed due to a landslide of a large volume of rocks, marble blocks, and earth into two quarries, one of which was active.
The accident caused the death of two workers from a marble extraction company at the active quarry and three other men, occupants of two vehicles that were traveling on the collapsed section of road and which careered into the water-filled area of the inactive quarry.
The public prosecutors’ case rested on the fact that the defendants “all knew” about the “serious danger” of the EM255, but abjectly failed to safeguard the public interest.
Source material: LUSA
