A dramatic courtroom session unfolded at São João Novo Court in Porto this morning, marked by the testimony of four defendants who maintained their complete innocence, claiming they were identified by the victims out of hatred and revenge.
The prosecution alleges that on February 6, 2024, the defendants, under the leadership of the alleged patriarch [the ex-husband of one of the victims, with the other victim being the woman’s current partner], devised a plan to compel the woman to return to live with this defendant and to take away the grandchildren placed in her care since 2020.
The nine defendants face charges of acting in co-authorship in the commission of two counts of kidnapping (of minors), two counts of abduction, two counts of robbery, two counts of qualified bodily harm, two counts of threat, and one count of damage. Additionally, one defendant is charged with possession of a prohibited weapon.
Currently, four of the defendants are in pre-trial detention, while three are under house arrest. The remaining two are awaiting trial at liberty.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office argues that the defendants assaulted the man at the entrance of his home in Gondomar, brandished firearms and knives, and forced him inside, where they attacked the children’s grandmother, cut her hair with a knife, and later displayed the victim’s scalp on social media in a video. In the video, the children’s mother, also a defendant, admitted to severely beating her own mother.
“I wasn’t there. I was sleeping. I had taken my medication and was asleep. I only saw the video after noon when I woke up,” one of the defendants asserted, insisting that the victims identified him “out of revenge and hatred.”
Another accused, who was in pre-trial detention for about a year and is now wearing an electronic bracelet, testified after the first defendant, firmly denying any involvement. “They accused me and four other innocent people. I did nothing of what I’m accused of. They ruined my life. I just want to prove my innocence and be happy again,” he declared, claiming that at the time of the incident, around 8:00 AM, he was at work.
A third defendant also took the stand, echoing his predecessors in claiming innocence: “I am a believer, a Christian (…) and therefore, I could not do this,” he explained.
The fourth and final defendant to testify during the session similarly stressed his innocence: “I don’t know why I’m here, I did nothing. I don’t know why I was identified [by the allegedly assaulted man].”
The trial is set to continue this afternoon with the questioning of the children’s mother, who has expressed willingness to testify, reversing her earlier decision not to.
