Two further PSP officers have been charged with giving false testimony about the knife that “appeared at the scene” to justify the fatal shooting of Cape Verdean cook Odair Moniz in Cova de Moura a year ago.
The trial of the young PSP agent accused of murdering Moniz is due to start this month – later than originally scheduled due to medical issues of the defence lawyer. But now, Público reports that the agent’s colleague – originally treated as simply a witness to the incident – is being seen as a form of accomplice, facing a charge of giving false testimony.
Público adds that a third agent also faces the charge of false testimony.
At issue is the ‘story about the knife’, used in the initial official PSP report to justify the agent’s decision to resort to the use of a firearm.
As subsequent investigations rapidly concluded, the knife was almost certainly planted after Moniz was shot twice, resulting in his death.
Público explains: “This case aimed to investigate two sets of facts: on the one hand, whether it was in fact the officers involved in the events who wrote the official report, the so-called police report; on the other hand, whether the knife had been planted by someone at the crime scene – or at least moved – and placed in plain sight after the death”.
According to a new indictment dated October 1 and cited by Público, all the evidence reinforces suspicions that the knife ‘was placed at the scene or placed in plain sight’, to suggest that it belonged to Moniz – which to this day appears not to have been forensically established.
‘None of the statements correspond to the truth’
Público’s report adds that the Public Prosecutor’s Office has concluded that the two PSP agents involved in the shooting (the alleged shooter, and his colleague) lied when they claimed to have “seen the knife” under Odair Moniz’s body when they went to lift him up.
“The prosecutor has now reiterated that the narrative in the police report is constructed in such a way as to lead to the interpretation that the officer acted in self-defence because Odair Moniz was wielding a knife” but “none of the statements correspond to the truth: the dagger or knife they referred to was not under Odair’s body”, says the indictment.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office indicates that in addition to the three agents who have been charged, another police officer, also present at the scene, denied seeing any dagger under the body, and a doctor said she only saw the knife after the body had been removed from the scene.
It became clear in January that the ‘evidence’ that Odair Moniz had used a knife to threaten the two officers in the early hours of October 21 was flimsy, to say the least.
Prosecutors conceded that the father of two had tried to flee/ resist arrest, but his behaviour was not enough to resort to the use of a firearm with such devastating consequences.
As for the trial of the PSP officer suspected of murder, this was due to have started today, but has now been postponed until October 22 due to the defence lawyer’s health.
Correio da Manhã has reported that the agent “lives in fear” of reprisals, moving residences regularly.
The death of Odair Moniz sparked a wave of violence throughout Greater Lisbon, and caused elevated criminal damage and at least one very serious injury.
Cova da Moura is a neighbourhood that has a dismal history with police.
Source material: SIC citing Público
