The jury court spent the morning and part of the afternoon listening to a report from the Judiciary police inspector who analyzed the mobile phone data of Fernando Valente and Mónica Silva, which enabled the tracking of their movements.
“It was a very important, very detailed, and very technical testimony,” said António Falé de Carvalho, the lawyer representing the missing pregnant woman’s minor children.
The lawyer noted that this witness was not originally on the list of prosecution witnesses but was added later at the request of the Public Prosecution Service to clarify certain doubts.
During the same session, another prosecution witness was questioned, and the victim’s ex-partner, an assistant in the case, gave testimony via remote communication as he is currently at sea.
The session also included the continued presentation of recorded future memory statements from one of Mónica Silva’s minor children.
The hearing was adjourned around 17:00, set to resume on Wednesday at 09:30, for the questioning of Mónica Silva’s twin sister, which is considered crucial according to the victim’s family, as “she was the person Mónica confided in daily.”
The jury trial, comprised of three career judges and eight jurors, is being conducted behind closed doors, excluding the public and journalists. This decision was made by the presiding judge to maintain the dignity of the victim and those involved, particularly her children.
Fernando Valente, who had a romantic relationship with the victim that allegedly resulted in a pregnancy, is charged with aggravated homicide, abortion, desecration of a corpse, unauthorized access, and the acquisition of counterfeit currency for circulation.
The defendant, currently under house arrest, was apprehended by the Judiciary Police in November 2023, over a month after the woman, who was seven months pregnant, went missing.
The Public Prosecution Service accuses the defendant of killing the victim and the fetus she was carrying on the night of October 3, 2023, at his apartment in Torreira, to avoid paternity claims and benefit from her estate.
The indictment details that during the early hours of October 4 and the following days, the defendant allegedly disposed of the victim’s body, hiding it and preventing its discovery to this day.
