The first session of the trial at the Intermunicipal Community of Baixo Alentejo (CIMBAL) in Beja took place this morning, lasting “about an hour,” with “the 12 defendants present being identified, as one did not attend,” attorney Pedro Pestana told Lusa.
“Since none of the defendants wished to give statements to the panel of judges, they deferred that possibility to a later date, which expedited the session,” the lawyer explained.
Pedro Pestana, representing one of the defendants, stated that the trial would resume on Wednesday at 09:30 when “witnesses summoned by the prosecution will begin to be heard.”
This is one of the cases stemming from the so-called “Operation Mirror,” carried out by the Judiciary Police in November 2023, related to the alleged exploitation of dozens of immigrant workers in agricultural estates in Alentejo.
In another case derived from that police operation, with the ruling delivered on January 31 this year, the Beja court acquitted the 18 individuals and two companies charged with criminal association, human trafficking, and money laundering, among other crimes.
In the trial initiated today, explained Pedro Pestana, “30 crimes of human trafficking, as well as crimes of aiding illegal immigration, criminal association to aid illegal immigration, money laundering, among others” are at issue.
“The Public Prosecutor has listed 74 witnesses to try to prove the occurrence of the crimes,” and “several sessions are scheduled throughout this month and into November,” he added.
In statements to Lusa, Pedro Pestana expressed his expectation that the outcome of this trial would be “similar or very close to the previous case.”
“In the other case, the defendants were acquitted due to insufficient evidence, and the only proven facts were mere labor violations. Now, I believe the interpretation will be the same, with facts not substantiated in the indictment or concluding that there were merely violations of labor rules,” argued the lawyer.
He admitted that “some differences” exist compared to the other trial, pointing out that, this time, “some victims were heard for future reference, which did not happen before,” and more crimes are involved: “These include aiding illegal immigration and criminal association to aid illegal immigration, which were not typified in the previous case.”
According to information from the accusation and indictment orders consulted by Lusa, among the 13 individual defendants, eight are from Romania, two from Moldova, one from Spain, one from Peru, and another from Portugal, with six individuals in preventive detention.
The Public Prosecutor alleges that the defendant identified as the alleged ringleader of the supposed criminal network had, since at least 2019, devised a plan to attract individuals from Romania, Moldova, Colombia, Morocco, and Peru, among other countries, to work in agriculture in Portugal, depending on seasonal crops in various regions of Alentejo, Lisbon, and Spain.
To this end, the defendant is alleged to have established professional relationships with agricultural operations to place the laborers recruited, with presumed involvement of family members and acquaintances in this organizational structure.
The intent, according to the Public Prosecutor, was to “achieve maximum profit regardless of the working conditions and payment to these foreign citizens.”
The alleged criminal activity continued until 2023, with the Public Prosecutor also noting that, under the ringleader’s instructions, the supposed criminal network subjected immigrants to comply with all orders, under threat of violence from the defendants.
