Justice: Leonor Cipriano's lawyer is going to request the annulment of today's court session

Justice: Leonor Cipriano's lawyer is going to request the annulment of today's court session

Faro, Jan 22 (Lusa) - Leonor Cipriano's lawyer, Aragão Correia, accused the president of the panel of judges in the trial over alleged aggressions against his client of partiality and announced that he will request the annulment of today's audience.



"I'm going to put [sic] a complaint against the president of the judges' panel to the Superior Council of Magistrature", said Marcos Aragão Correia, adding that judge Henrique Pavão has a "biased attitude", which culminated today with his expulsion from the court room.

In order to justify the judge's "biased attitude", the lawyer said that the magistrate refused 40 requests from assistant Leonor Cipriano, only allowing for the director of Odemira Prison, Ana Maria Calado, to be heard.

Marcos Aragão Correia was preventively suspended today, at the request of the Deontology Council of the Lawyers' Order Madeira section, the reason why he was prevented from exercising his mandate in Leonor Cipriano's defence.

The lawyer says that he was caught by "surprise" by the preventive suspension, which he classified as "a maneuver by the Algarve Lawyers' Order", referring that the complaint was filed by António Cabrita, Gonçalo Amaral's lawyer and the president of the District Council of the Lawyers' Order in the Algarve.

Aragão said that the preventive suspension was based on "accusations from Dr António Cabrita" and stated that there are "interests and differences" behind these accusations.

The lawyer entered the courtroom today in order to contest the preventive suspension, but the president of the panel of judges didn't allow him to remain inside the room.

Meanwhile, the session continues with the audition of the testimony by the director of the prison of Odemira.

Leonor Cipriano's lawyer was notified this morning by a member of the Lawyers' Order's Algarve District Council, Hélder de Sousa, who excused himself from specifying the contents of the disciplinary process that was filed against Marcos Aragão Correia.

The notification took place in a room at the court of Faro, before today's trial session started.

The process of alleged aggressions against Leonor Cipriano by PJ inspectors is related to the so-called "Joana case", which dates back to the 12th of September 2004, the day when the little girl, aged eight, disappeared from the village of Figueira, Portimão, Algarve.

The Public Ministry's accusations against five Judiciária inspectors and former inspectors appeared following the questionings at the PJ in Faro in 2004, at a time when Leonor appeared at the Prison of Odemira, where she was being preventively held, with lesions to her face and body.


source: Lusa, 22.01.2009

By Astro

This man is mental and should have been locked up for his own safety.

Why was he thrown out of the case?