No appeal for Amaral yet in Cipriano case

The Faro Court decision that condemned Gonçalo Amaral can only move into appeal after the members of the jury are paid

The eight jurors that were present during the process of Leonor Cipriano against Polícia Judiciária (PJ) agents have not been paid by the Court of Faro, which is delaying the appeals that were filed by the lawyers at the Appeals Court. An amount that exceeds 16 thousand euro has not been paid and is standing in the way of a decision from the Appeals Court, given that the appeals concerning applied sentences and acquittals cannot move from the first instance into the Appeals Court unless the eight members of the jury are paid. The law does not foresee any legal deadline for appeals to reach the Appeals Court.

Five appeals are at issue. One from the lawyer that represents former PJ inspector Gonçalo Amaral, who did not conform over the condemnation for false deposition. One from the representative of Leonor Cipriano, who did not agree with the acquittal of Leonel Marques, Paulo Cristóvão and Paulo Marques Bom. And a third appeal that was written by the lawyers who represent one of the Judiciária agents, António Cardoso, condemned over document forgery.

These three appeals are joined by two that were filed prior to the sentence and for which the PJ agents’ lawyers are responsible. One of the requests focuses on the Lawyers’ Order being made an assistant in the process – which the agent’s defence considers not to be one of the Orders’ purposes and says is at odds with its statutes. And the second one was filed because the defence considers it had a right to hear a statement from Marinho Pinto, the head of the Lawyers’ Order, which was refused because he was an assistant in the process, The defence called Marinho Pinto (given that as a journalist he published Leonor Cipriano’s photos in the “Expresso” newspaper) as a witness, but due to the fact that he made himself an assistant, the judge rejected his witness statement.

This is a total of five appeals that wait for delivery at the Appeals Court in Évora, in order to be evaluated. According to judicial sources that were contacted by i, the case may drag on for some time, given that the Judicial Court of Faro may not have enough financial resources for this year, in order to pay over 16 thousand euro that the jury is owed.

According to the Jurors’ Statute, “after the sentence is read in the first instance, compensation is attributed based on every day that the function was effectively exercised”. This means that each one of the jurors – four effectives and four substitutes – receives one account unit (102 euro) for each day of work. There were approximately 16 court sessions, three meetings of the jurors with the judges and one interview during selection phase, which sums 20 days of pay for each juror.

In this process, in which Leonor Cipriano accused the Judiciária inspectors of torture, it was the defence that requested a jury trial, although the use of jurors is uncommon in Portugal. According to statements made at that time, the defence lawyers wanted “for the people to judge the police agents”.

Less serious cases are tried by a judge.

More serious cases are tried by three judges, or exceptionally, by a jury.

More delay's. !!!!!!!!!!!!

Do they often have a problem paying or is this the first time ???

enigma wrote:Do they often have a problem paying or is this the first time ???

A highly relevant question. If this is a 'one-off' lack of funds it would be very suspicious indeed.

That's what I want to know. Is this a regular occurrence in Portugal, or another stalling tactic? Where's Claudia, she might know!

Christine - could you give us a link to the original source please?

Could it be the paper only version of this story from Correio da Manha?

http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia.aspx?contentid=8C7B14D8-EEFA-4432-8810-24DC2531CA0B&channelid=00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000010

23 Outubro 2009 - 08h19
Oito jurados ainda não receberam
Leonor Cipriano: Recursos travados por falta de 16 mil euros
Os recursos interpostos no Tribunal da Relação, no âmbito do processo de Leonor Cipriano contra agentes da Polícia Judiciária, estão a atrasar-se por falta de pagamento de oito jurados, avança o jornal ‘i’.

Em causa estão mais de 16 mil euros que o Tribunal de Faro ainda não pagou e que estão a impedir a decisão do Tribunal da Relação, já que os recursos não saem da primeira instância enquanto o valor não for reposto.

Ao todo são cinco recursos que estão a ser afectados. Um deles é o do advogado do ex-inspector Gonçalo Amaral, condenado por falso depoimento.

Interesting comments to that snippet of the article!

Google Translated

23 October 2009 - 19:58 | Luis Rodrigues
They want to lynch the Inspector G. Amaral Public square in England would never do that to an Inspector!
23 October 2009 - 18:56 | C. Miguel
It is more important to defend the criminal than force her to say what he did to the body of her daughter. Shame of Justice.
23 October 2009 - 16:02 | Rafaela
I echo the words of commentator Bosniac.N could not agree more. Amadora
23 October 2009 - 15:34 | mariadepiedad ferreira marques
I'm Portuguese living in venezuela y aki ke esa says if parent gave the child cut the pigs, ke biabolica mind.
23 October 2009 - 13:50 | Jorge de Fão
This woman shows no repentance. What would have made her daughter? Requiring her to confess.
23 October 2009 - 13:03 | Peter
Borrow money to parents of Meddie, because they provided it is to plot the inspector Gonçalo Amaral, dao help.
23 October 2009 - 12:41 pm | Joana
It is a pity this woman has not had the maximum punishment for the crime committed, who still thinks acknowledge'????
23 October 2009 - 10:50 am | Bosniac
If it was 1 person that already rich estva reslvido or better the PJ is not even had it and played as parents MADI.
23 October 2009 - 10:49 am | Fernando Carvalho
Appeal? And Joan? She forgot her daughter?
23 October 2009 - 10:44 am | Ulysses
At the time of the crime, took the time to give false clues s / the body of her daughter, now what you want? Exculpate a criminal.
23 October 2009 - 09h47 | Jorge de Fão
And no one forces her to say what he did to his daughter. What would have made the innocent child?

JJP, it was posted by Astro on Joana Morais, but there was no link to the original article. Maybe the one you refered to is the correct one, I don't speak Portuguese

Here is another one from the same source (Joana Morais)
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2009/10/maddie-case-cop-broke.html

enigma wrote:Do they often have a problem paying or is this the first time ???

A court with juries are extremely rare in Portugal, so, we can't say it's a recurrent problem. However, I don't think it has anything to do with funds as they come directly from the Ministry. I think this is related with burocracy.

Or could it be just wanting to stall this case for some reason. It is odd that Goncalo has been condemned but cannot appeal in the Cipriano case and has been injuncted to stop him commenting on the Maddie case but that is not proceeding any further at the present time either.

It gives me some cautious optimism that there is movement in resolving the Maddie case. Either Goncalo is right and they did kill Madeleine and dispose of her body or they disposed of Madeleine alive. Either way UK would be wanting Goncalo to be silenced so that we can put the McCanns on trial at some future point and they cannot seek to claim they have been denied the right to a fair trial. What sometimes happens in UK, is that the trial has to be delayed to give sufficient time for public comment to stop, is this what it is all about?

I would not be at all surprised to learn that there is such high level judicial and governmental co-operation between Portugal and UK to get the McCanns. I really hope so!

If that is right, maybe people can feel just a little better about what seems to be very harsh treatment of Goncalo.

I don't know if this was the right thing to do, but I mailed Paolo Reis, re Amarals financial situation. I want to set up a fundraising for him, with donations from our members and others if possible.

Here is the mail I send him :

Hallo Mr Reis

I hope you don't mind me mailing you, but knowing that you are not one of the pro McCanns (same as I), I am getting worried about the 'misfortune' that Mr Amaral is encoutering. He is the only one that can solve this case, but the McCanns keep suing him because they have money. This is what is it all about.

I am a member of the forum 'Missing Madeleine', and we have been talking about financial aid for Mr. Amaral in his appeal. My concern is, would Mr Amaral be helped with that, because I think a lot of members would donate.
I don't know what his plans are, but I do think he needs financial support.

Since you are Portuguese, and probably more 'in touch' with Mr Amaral, do you think this would be appreciated, or rather counter productive? Or would that money be seized too?

I hope to hear from you very soon.

Regards

Christine
Belgium

viv wrote:Or could it be just wanting to stall this case for some reason. It is odd that Goncalo has been condemned but cannot appeal in the Cipriano case and has been injuncted to stop him commenting on the Maddie case but that is not proceeding any further at the present time either.

It gives me some cautious optimism that there is movement in resolving the Maddie case. Either Goncalo is right and they did kill Madeleine and dispose of her body or they disposed of Madeleine alive. Either way UK would be wanting Goncalo to be silenced so that we can put the McCanns on trial at some future point and they cannot seek to claim they have been denied the right to a fair trial. What sometimes happens in UK, is that the trial has to be delayed to give sufficient time for public comment to stop, is this what it is all about?

I would not be at all surprised to learn that there is such high level judicial and governmental co-operation between Portugal and UK to get the McCanns. I really hope so!

If that is right, maybe people can feel just a little better about what seems to be very harsh treatment of Goncalo.

How I wish it were true.

Lilemor wrote:

viv wrote:Or could it be just wanting to stall this case for some reason. It is odd that Goncalo has been condemned but cannot appeal in the Cipriano case and has been injuncted to stop him commenting on the Maddie case but that is not proceeding any further at the present time either.

It gives me some cautious optimism that there is movement in resolving the Maddie case. Either Goncalo is right and they did kill Madeleine and dispose of her body or they disposed of Madeleine alive. Either way UK would be wanting Goncalo to be silenced so that we can put the McCanns on trial at some future point and they cannot seek to claim they have been denied the right to a fair trial. What sometimes happens in UK, is that the trial has to be delayed to give sufficient time for public comment to stop, is this what it is all about?

I would not be at all surprised to learn that there is such high level judicial and governmental co-operation between Portugal and UK to get the McCanns. I really hope so!

If that is right, maybe people can feel just a little better about what seems to be very harsh treatment of Goncalo.

How I wish it were true.

Until a few minutes ago Viv's post gave me renewed hope that is until I read that Amaral's Jag has now been seized !!

His Jag has been seized?!

What utility is there in the McCanns going on a charm offensive in Pt, their treatment of Goncalo will and will continue to cause sheer outrage among ordinary Pt citizens.

I believe that is why they are doing this, including presumably getting Kate's Everton friend to shell out for 6000 free t shirts. Already that has gone wrong for them.

There just has to be a very good reason why Gerry is engaged on one of his "high risk strategies". If it is right they have even had his car seized and intend to just totally bankrupt him and his family it will be the worst thing the McCanns have ever done.

Goncalo may have technically libelled them, that will never make them right. They are going to lose what little sympathy and understanding they may have had, that is for sure.

I think we should make sure we publicise, as widely as possible on the internet exactly what they are doing to Goncalo. It is not going to bring little Maddie back and I feel right minded people will continue to believe they should have co-operated with the police by answering questions and attending a reconstruction rather than asset stripping the former investigating officer. They can only accrue further wealth to them, people are not so foolish they cannot see that.

Actually I still feel that we have reached some sort of endgame here, and that this is the McScums last desperate attempt to save their sorry asses.

I Hope You Are Right..........

Don't ask me to explain why I feel that, flower; it's just a feeling I get. First there was poor wee Aisling, and the McScums deplorable behaviour (again); and the Swedish rubbish; and the Big T Shirt Campaign that turned out to be a damp squib; Clarry trying to jump the sinking ship, I won't even compare it to a rat, rats have more integrity. Now we have this turning up the heat on Dr Amaral. Something is happening offstage, I don't know what it is, but I just feel it's something important, and not in a good way (for the McScum). It may take a while to rise to the surface though, so I guess we'll just have to be patient for a little longer.

The Famous Grouse- I agree with everything you are saying and it makes sense. However, we have been here so many times before with all their nonsense and maybe I'm just wearying!! I will take your advice and be patient - again I will say I Hope You Are Right - and I hope it is something important and not in a good way "for the McScum'!!

I just wish they'd hurry up. !!!!!!!!

Keep the faith guys, the McCanns have no good reason to behave this way, other than sheer desperation.

Maybe the thought of £1.2M (in their wildest dreams I think) from Goncalo to help them continue to defend themselves in the strict legal sense and in the PR sense sounds like a gift horse whose mouth they cannot afford to look to deeply into.

Personally I think they would be better off with good old Legal Aid. But Gerry does see himself as a big time crim, pity most of his rich mates ran out on him xx

I hope that they never get a penny from Mr Amaral.