The court announced on its website that the three defendants were presented for an initial judicial interrogation and were subjected to preventive detention and a ban on contacting the victim or the other defendants.
The defendants are accused of committing a crime of qualified kidnapping, a crime of qualified bodily harm, and a crime of illegal recordings and photographs.
The interrogation began on Tuesday and resumed today between 10:30 am and 1:00 pm.
The Polícia Judiciária (PJ) stated on Sunday that five individuals aged between 19 and 29 were arrested in Funchal on charges of aggravated kidnapping of a man, qualified bodily harm, illegal recordings and photographs, and aggravated threat.
The PJ reported that a woman and a man, aged 24 and 29 respectively, were apprehended from Thursday to Friday night (September 18 to 19), while the remaining suspects were intercepted on Sunday.
The first two detainees underwent initial judicial interrogation on Saturday, both receiving preventive detention.
The crimes, for which they are “strongly suspected,” occurred on Wednesday, September 17, in Funchal.
“The crimes were committed in the morning of that date, with five suspects ambushing the victim, a 25-year-old man,” explained the PJ, adding that “he was approached at his doorstep after being enticed by the female suspect, convincing him to leave home and forcefully taken, in a vehicle.”
According to the PJ, the victim was held captive for about three hours, “during which he was constantly assaulted with punches, elbows, an iron bar, and a baseball bat.”
He was subsequently “abandoned, completely naked, stripped of all his belongings, in a remote area, a forested zone in São Roque do Faial, in the municipality of Santana, in northern Madeira.”
“Always under threat, the victim was forced to confess to having committed a rape he did not commit, while being filmed, for potential publication on social networks. He was also threatened with death if he reported the facts to the police,” the statement added.
“Two of the detainees have criminal records for drug trafficking, with one of them having already served a prison sentence,” clarified the Polícia Judiciária, noting that “trivial motives and jealousy appear to be at the origin of this criminal association.”
