In a written response sent to Lusa, lawyer Silvino Fernandes acknowledged that “the defendants and defense were surprised by the decision” of the Évora Court of Appeal (TRE), which ordered a retrial.
“The defendants continue to regret the accident but believe that no responsibility can be attributed to them. Thus, they expect the new trial to recognize this,” he emphasized.
The lawyer noted that the defendants and the defense are “confronted with a fait accompli,” referring to the “annulment of the entire trial and its repetition in the criminal court by a new panel of judges.”
“With the decision to repeat all the evidence to be produced, the defendants will provide statements, just as they did in the annulled trial,” said the lawyer of the former mayor of Borba, António Anselmo, and the former vice-president of the same municipality, Joaquim Espanhol.
Silvino Fernandes declined to comment on the legal issues that served as the basis for annulling the first-instance ruling, reminding that the TRE’s decision is not subject to appeal.
In a ruling issued on Tuesday, the TRE ordered the retrial of the six defendants acquitted in the case of the collapse of Municipal Road 255 (EM255) between Borba and Vila Viçosa, which resulted in five deaths in 2018.
The panel of appellate judges, ruling on an appeal by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), argues that the first-instance ruling contains an insurmountable contradiction in its reasoning and a clear error in the assessment of evidence.
On February 21 of this year, the Évora Court acquitted the six defendants of all the crimes they were accused of.
The then mayor of Borba, António Anselmo, charged with five counts of homicide by omission, and the then vice-president, Joaquim Espanhol, judged for three counts of homicide by omission, were two of those acquitted.
The other defendants in the case are Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG) employees Bernardino Piteira and José Pereira, each charged with two counts of homicide by omission; the quarry operating company, whose manager has already passed away; and technical manager Paulo Alves, each charged with 10 counts of violating safety regulations.
On the afternoon of November 19, 2018, a section of about 100 meters of the EM255 collapsed due to the sliding of a large volume of rocks, marble blocks, and soil into two quarries, one active and the other inactive.
The accident caused the deaths of two workers from a marble extraction company at the active quarry and three other men, occupants of two vehicles traveling on the collapsed road section, which fell into the inactive quarry’s water area.
