Joana’s uncle tried to sell her

by Miguel Ferreira

Leonor Cipriano’s lawyer asked the Attorney General to open a new inquiry, in order to find out what really happened to the little girl from Figueira, and to review the sentence that condemned siblings Leonor and João over the death of Joana. Aragão Correia justifies the request with a confession from João Cipriano, the child’s uncle, “written by his own hand, on Monday, where the inmate reveals that he tried to sell his niece”.

In s statement to 24horas, Marcos Aragão clarifies that “João’s confession was obtained in exchange for requesting State protection, because he fears being murdered, inside the prison where he is, in Carregueira, under orders from the criminals that tried to buy Joana”, a strategy that was used by Aragão that “left João in a panic”.

The lawyer says that “the Public Ministry must discover who wanted to buy Joana and for what purpose, recover the body for forensic and post-mortem testing and give her a decent funeral”.

For António Cabrita, Gonçalo Amaral’s lawyer, neither the alleged confession from João nor the request from Aragão deserve any credibility. “It’s strange that the writing of the alleged confession and the signature are different”, the lawyer said, observing similarities with the writing that had been used already in Leonor’s last confession, which was also made public by Aragão. He also notes that “strangely, Cipriano is sometimes written with a C, sometimes with an S”.

Confession and torture

Concerning the request that was presented to [Attorney General] Pinto Monteiro, António Cabrita says that “Aragão Correia must be confusing searching with prosecutor”. He recalls that any request to reopen the inquiry should be filed, in this case, with the court of Portimão, where the trial took place.

João Cipriano’s alleged confession is made public “on the eve” of the reading of the sentence that will either acquit or condemn the inspectors that stand accused of torturing Leonor Cipriano in order to obtain further information about the location of her daughter’s body.


source: 24horas, 20.05.2009

By Astro

How comes the confession hasnt been heard yet? I would have thought that would have been heard long ago.