The reading of the sentence of the man accused of enslaving 14 people on farms in Spain, scheduled for this Wednesday, in Porto, was postponed to March 16 due to the strike of judicial officials.
The case began to be tried in September 2022, in the Court of S. João Novo, with the defendant accused of, between 2011 and 2016, having taken him to Spain (to La Rioja and Léon), to work on farms, at least 14 people who will have been housed in warehouses, corrals or pigsties, having been provided with “nutritionally poor” food.
The court officials are from February 15 to March 14, to carry out a “different strike” that affects the trial procedures, the services of the Public Ministry (MP), the registration of accounting acts and the practice of acts related to the request for criminal records.
Among the main demands are the provision of vacancies in the career of bailiffs, the opening of procedures for access to all categories of the career, the integration of the procedural complement of recovery at expiration, the inclusion in a special retirement regime and access to the pre-retirement regime and review of the professional situation.
Regarding this case whose sentencing was postponed this Wednesday, in the final arguments, the MP requested a prison sentence for the accused, considering that he should be sentenced for human trafficking and crimes and not for slavery, as initially charged.
The Prosecutor’s Office highlighted the “special vulnerability” of the victims, whose choice was considered “obeying a pattern of alcohol dependence or economic and psychological fragility”, the patrimonial advantages that the defendant has accumulated over the years and the fact that that he “be aware” of the actions he was carrying out.
The prosecution maintains that the workers were forced working more than 13 hours a day, beaten while trying to escape and that “major movement restrictions” were imposed on them, being unable to leave their accommodation or return to Portugal.
“The crime of slavery was not proven,” defended the Public Ministry, who considered that the most appropriate classification of the defendant’s actions, which he considered proven in court, is that of human trafficking.
The MP requested that the defendant be sentenced for 11 crimes of human trafficking and four crimes, having requested the acquittal of the 19 crimes of slavery and the facts related to three workers, which it was not possible to know in the trial.
On the defense side, the defendant’s lawyer, who throughout the trial was always denying the facts for which he was charged, arguing that “everything in order” and that “he had the papers” of the workers “as required by the laws of Spain,” he asked for his acquittal.
“If anyone is to be condemned It is society that has not known how to treat these people (workers) and families who demand from others what they did not do (…) The court (…) is here because society has given up caring for these people and the only one who can help them is to be judged,” he said. the argument.
Source: Observadora
