Google translated from Portuguese
The trial was scheduled to start at 9 am, but it should now be until this Tuesday afternoon. One of the judges who were assigned is on sick leave and the magistrate who was supposed to replace her told her that she was going to be operated on and will be on sick leave. A third magistrate was tried, who refused to join the collective.
The start of the trial in the Hells Angels case, in which more than 80 defendants are responsible for hundreds of crimes , including attempted murder, criminal association, detention of prohibited weapons, extortion and drug trafficking, was postponed to 2:00 pm on Tuesday. fair. The trial was scheduled to start at 9 am.
At issue is the fact that one of the three judges who make up the collective is missing. According to the president of the panel of judges, Sara Pina Cabral, the judge who was appointed is on sick leave and the magistrate who was to replace her warned that she will undergo surgery and that she will also be on sick leave for at least 30 days. A third magistrate was tried, who refused to join the collective.
A fourth judge is now on the scale, but it will be the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) that will, in the meantime, decide who will integrate the collective. In other words, the CSM will still decide whether or not to accept the refusal of the third judge and her replacement by the fourth magistrate on the list.
The defendants’ defenses have already made requests in which they request access to all CSM orders on this situation of impediment of the judges to know the specific reasons, as they fear that the principle of the natural judge, which prohibits the choice of a judge, is at stake. arbitrarily.
The trial will take place in Camarate’s multi-purpose space, the Fábrica, which had to be subject to work for that purpose and will be done by a collective of the Judicial Court of the District of Lisbon North.
This process originated in an episode of violence carried out by two rival groups in March 2018. Following the creation in Portugal of a subsidiary of their great international rival, Los Bandidos, linked to Mário Machado, members of the branch The Portuguese of the Hells Angels armed themselves with hammers, pipes and iron and wood sticks, chains, axes, knives, extendable sticks and knives before heading to the restaurant Mesa do Prior, in Prior Velho. The incident resulted in six injuries, three of which were serious.
In the allegations of the preliminary debate, on 20 July 2020, the Public Prosecutor’s Office asked for the trial of all the defendants, arguing that they all committed the crimes listed in the indictment, which had telephone tapping, documents seized from the group as evidence. biker and the testimony of witnesses and defendants.
Persecution of Mario Machado
The MP gave as proven the attack carried out by the defendants and members of the Hells Angels group in the restaurant, as well as the persecution carried out by them against Mário Machado, leader of the far-right movement New Social Order and who belonged to a rival motorcycle group .
The investigation of the case ended up in the hands of the judge of the Central Court of Criminal Instruction (TCIC) Carlos Alexandre, who in October 2020 almost fully confirmed the accusation of the Public Ministry (MP).
Carlos Alexandre concluded that “this set of elements grouped in this way is not a simple biker recreational club , but a group of people who organize themselves in paramilitary or similar ways to the mode of action of a militia”.
“Anyone can be a biker or not (…), but to be part of this association you have to obey the statutes, which implies obeying the decisions of the chapter or charter , whatever, and even if that includes, amazingly themselves, aggressions/punishments (…), from which no one is safe”, wrote the judge.
Carlos Alexandre also said that he was convinced that this “association and this set of elements that comprise it are in absolute consonance, hierarchical and imbued with obedience not only to the statutes and obligations arising from them, wherever they are”.
In addition, and following what the prosecution of the Public Ministry already defended, according to the indictment and with regard to the attack that took place in the restaurant, “the performance of all defendants, members of the HAMC [Hells Angels Motorcycle Club] followed a process of decision-making and operational planning, namely recruitment/summoning of available members and supporters , obtaining weapons, ‘camouflage’ clothing, means of transport, defining concentration points and tasks during the attack , as well as escape planning”.
