The ACED and Marcos Aragao Correia's reports, on Leonor Cipriano, which were sent to the highest Portuguese authorities, 08 April 2008

The ACED and Marcos Aragao Correia's reports, on Leonor Cipriano, which were sent to the highest Portuguese authorities SOS PRISÕES (pdf) 08 April 2008 -------------------- To: Ex.mos. Ladies President of the Republic; President of the Assembly of the Republic; Chairman of the Committee for Constitutional Affairs, Rights, freedoms and guarantees of AR; Attorney-General of the Republic Minister of Justice; Ombudsman; Inspector-General of Bureau of Justice; President's Commission on Human Rights of the Bar Lisbon, 8-04-2008 N. Ref No 16/apd/08 Subject: Report on police torture of Leonor Cipriano As a lawyer of the ACED, Dr. Marcos Aragao Correia asked for the Policia Judiciaria to be prosecuted in connection with the allegations of the torture of Leonor Cipriano. It was concluded, as it is in the public domain, that the existence of several signs and lines of evidence and the number of witnesses to the brutality and irrationality of the police's methods of investigation meant that this complaint should be admitted and go forward. We remember the defence of the accused person at her trial, Leonor Cipriano, who said she had been threatened and tortured by members of the police. Some of the key players involved in this case have been mobilised to work in cases of high national and political delicacy, and have been speaking out without any sort of restraint. In addition to what our lawyer, Dr Marcos Aragao Correia, said, it also could be a possibility in Portugal that certain public health institutions are able to cover up, or not report, practices of torture against patients by themselves. It may be that there are members of our state security system who are organising themselves to cover up the routine practice of torture to extract confessions. This may be happening in other prisons, but there have been no complaints in similar situations in other prisons. The ACED is not, it is good to see, meaning itself to confirm or disprove what is inferred to be the situation in Portugal regarding the current practice of police torture. But the Portuguese state is signatory to international conventions that we are sure it will want to abide by. So this report must be sent to the highest Portuguese authorities, hoping that the name of Portugal can no longer be linked to such shameful conduct by the police. The Directorate REPORT ON THE TORTURE OF LEONOR CIPRIANO PERPETRATED BY THE PORTUGUESE JUDICIAL POLICE Entity investigator: ACED - Association Against Exclusion for Development; Researcher/Reporter: Marcos Aragao Correia, Lawyer; Date: 08 April 2008 INTRODUCTION Following the public allegations by Leonor Cipriano that she was tortured by the Policia Judiciara back in September 2004, she is now currently in prison while serving a sentence of 16 years and 8 months in the Prison of Odemira. The ACED (Association Against Exclusion for Development) decided to investigate in more detail the claims of Leonor Cipriano and others, especially when the situation had become urgent, to clarify the extent to which the Policia Judiciara routinely engage in torture. It seems that these medieval methods of criminal investigation apply both in the most recent case of the girl Madeleine Beth McCann, and in the case of Leonor Cipriano.The social position of these two sets of parents could not be more opposite. Thus, after obtaining the kind and generous permission of the representative of Leonor Cipriano, the Portuguese Dr. John Grade dos Santos, I visited Leonor Cipriano in Odemira Prison, in Alentejo, arriving shortly after 9 o'clock in the morning today (April 8, 2008). No. 1 Leonor Cipriano was summoned, and agreed to talk with me in the room reserved for lawyers at the prison for the purpose. Leonor Cipriano maintained, with sincere conviction, that she had no involvement whatsoever in the death of her daughter Joana, who had gone missing on 12 September 2004, last being seen around 8.00pm. Residents in the village of Figueira in Mexilhoeira Grande, near Portimao, remember seeing Joana walking towards a grocery store named 'Pastry Célia', around a quarter of a mile away from Leonor Cipriano's home. The grocery store is owned by Mrs. Alfélia. She went there to buy some food, as she often did. After about 10 minutes, when Joana did not return, Leonor Cipriano said she went to the grocery store to find her. The owner said she had been there, but left soon after making a few purchases that had been requested by her mother. Leonor still tried to look for her daughter nearby, but in vain. As a result, the grocery owner Ms. Alfélia telephoned the GNR to ask for help. Immediately the National Republican Guard arived at the grocery store and the mother’s residence by 9.00pm that very evening. Joana Cipriano was then 8 years old, born on May 31, 1996, and attending her 2nd year of schooling. No. 2 Leonor Cipriano says she has 6 children, including Joana. The oldest is Dina Maria, now 18 years. Next is Mark Anthony, 12 years, Joana would now be 11, André Filipe is now 8, Ruben 6, and Lara Sofia who is 4. Despite all the public defamation of Leonor Cipriano, the older children by and large support their mother. They are the offspring of different relationships. Leonor's former partner, David Anthony Leandro Silva, has now separated from her due to all the stresses of the situation. He is the father of her two youngest children. He says he always treated Joana as his own daughter, with five of them living in the same house. Leandro Silva has always claimed that Leonor Cipriano was utterly incapable of hurting any of her six children. No. 3 It was on September 25, 2004 that Leonor Cipriano was received at the Prison of Odemira and detained there. There she was immediately taken for interrogation by several detective inspectors of the Policia Judiciara to the premises of the Faro police. This is the place where Leonor Cipriano suffered hell. Her tears just ran and ran; I saw copious tears in my presence. I practise mainly in criminal law. I think I can say with great conviction that her tears were genuine. Leonor cried when she recalled what those Policia Judiciara did to her during her interrogation. They accused her of directly causing her death and then cutting up her body and feeding it to the pigs. Leonor refused to admit to such accusations. These police officers had no evidence. They had no evidence of the material used for the alleged cutting of Joana's body. They had no evidence of bones left by the pigs. The inspectors themselves were pigs, about five of them, screaming and trying to get her to confess what they wanted her to confess. Leonor refused to confess. So the torture began. First the inspectors put two glass ashtrays on the floor and forced Leonor to kneel on them. They did not allow her to get up from her knees throughout this torture. Leonor has described to me how she was in pain for hours during this procedure. She had scars on her knees. Almost 4 years later, these scars are still visible, and will probably remain with her for the rest of her life. There are white lines on both her knees that show that she has fallen victim to such abuse, or at least something very similar. When they realised that this procedure of forcing her to kneel on ashtrays was getting them nowhere, the detective inspectors, sitting on their chairs, then put Leonor's head in a green, plastic supermarket bag. As they screamed, trying to force a false confession from her, the inspectors began to attack Leonor on the head with a hard cardboard tube, normally used for sending documents by mail. This very hard pipe, used with extreme force on Leonor's head, caused bleeding to her eyes. On occasions when Leonor tried to get the bag off her head, she was immediately assaulted further on her hands. She pleaded with them not to kill her. These serious assaults were interwoven with other forms of torture. Sometimes Eleanor was able to stand once in a while, sometimes holding the bag, sometimes not holding the bag. On the occasions she was standing, the inspectors punched her violently with strong punches, especially on her sides. This procedure was repeated many times. The torture lasted 2 days. Leonor says she was afraid of dying there. So after 2 days of continuous torture, she signed the confession that was put in front of her, without even reading it, because otherwise she feared she might die. No. 4 In possession of Leonor's false confession, the inspectors then returned her to the prison. But on admission, it was noted that her state of health was so serious that the prison authorities decided to move her to the Medical Centre in Odemira Prison. In fact, Faro Hospital had the most comprehensive health care, with input from Californian health care experts, but she was still sent to Odemira Prison by the detectives. Leonor Cipriano had been warned before going back to Odemira Prison to tell the doctor and the prison authorities that she had thrown herself down the stairs of the offices of the Faro Police Station in order to try to commit suicide. She had been threatened that if she revealed any details of the 2-day assault on her, they would bring her back for a further assault. She had been told by the Faro detectives that if she had to return to Faro Police Station they would beat her until she was no longer alive. Leonor confirmed to the prison authorities, in the presence of them, exactly what they had been told by the insepctors to say. But scarcely had they left the prison, than Leonor decided to tell the whole truth to the guards and to the Director of Odemira Prison. She - the Prison Governor - was alarmed by the precarious state of health and the pain of Leonor Cipriano. She therefore arranged for her to be photographed and sent back to the Odemira Prison Medical Centre, this time to be seen by a top Consultant Doctor. No. 5 I talked for almost 2 hours to Leonor Cipriano. I had been careful to also arrange for a meeting immediately afterwards with the Director of Odemira Prison, in order to confirm this information. I promptly received this confirmation. I talked with the Director of Odemira Prison for about one hour. Her name is Ana Maria Calado. She has a degree in Sociology and also attended a course of Medicine. She has been the Director of Odemira Prison for 7 years. She confirmed to me the courage with which Leonor Cipriano had reported her torture. She is clearly a person who puts great emphasis on the value of corporate interests. Dr. Ana Maria told me she was shocked by the state in which Leonor Cipriano entered the prison. She told me that the black marks, contusions and bruises were visible abundantly in the face, especially around the eyes, on the head and on her back, mainly to the sides. These findings were confirmed by medical experts in the prison. The physical marks on her, the doctors concluded, clearly indicated violent attacks, and not a by a simple falling down the stairs. These physical marks were numerous and quite pronounced. During our meeting, Dr Ana Maria surprised me with several new facts. She told me that the Portuguese Judiciara had not even bothered to convey her to a hospital in Faro. Another strange fact was that the Portuguese police had chosen Tuesday as the day to question her, coinciding with its week of vacation. If I were the head of the police, I would never have allowed the behaviour of the Policia Judiciara. They got Leonor Cipriano at 6 o'clock in the morning, and then returned for her in the middle of the night. There was no formal request for this form of interrogation from the Director of the Policia Judiciara. It was even stranger that, when enquiries began with an internal investigation into the interrogation and torture of Leonor Cipriano by the PJ, a team of two inspectors from Lisbon held a private meeting with her in prison. Their mission was to try to negotiate a sharing of blame between the PJ and the Odemira Prison in relation to the attacks on, and torture of, Leonor. As a person of integrity, Dr. Ana Calado obviously refused to come to any compromise regarding something for which the establishment for which she was responsible at the time - Odemira prison - had no responsibility for whatsoever. The Chief Prison Medical Officer said that Leonor Cipriano's health had got even worse a week after she had been tortured. The blood had accumulated around the eyebrows and became highly inflamed and swollen, making her nearly blind for nearly a month. My only regret today, said Dr Ana Calado, was that at the time I did not order more photographs to be taken to illustrate Leonor's poor state of health on admission and immediately afterwards. Dr Ana Maria's statement added: "I must say that in terms of her attitude and behaviour, Leonor Cipriano is one of the best prisoners that I have had for many years. She has not tried to commit suicide although she had many opportunities to do so after the fateful interrogation. Leonor has always had an excellent relationship with all the prison guards and the other prisoners, which has gone from strength to strength." With a touch of humor, Dr Ana Calado added that: "If your car had exploded this morning, I already know who would have been responsible!". Our meeting ended and it confirmed for me all the details of the excellent statement that Dr Ana Calado had already made in this case. No 6 John Cipriano, aged 38 years, the brother of Leonor and older by one year, says that he was tortured separately, according to the same report, but the prison to which her brother was sent should now carry out the same steps to gather evidence of assault as did the authorities at Odemira prison. John Cipriano wrote to Leonor, after the two of them had been sentenced. He begged her to forgive him for all the lies he had told in court, which he had been forced to come up with because of the torture of him. He asked his sister to forgive him for all these lies. No. 7 Leonor Cipriano tried to identify, at the request of prosecutors, the four or five detective inspectors that had tortured her. Accordingly, she was transported to Évora in 2006 to try to recognise some of the torturers. She was invited to see if she could identify up to six inspectors. Unfortunately, given the lapse of time, and the fact that she had often had a bag over her head when attacked, she was unable to be certain of recognising any of the aggressors. The only thing that Leonor was able to say with absolute certainty was that Goncalo Amaral, then coordinator of the CID of Portimao, was present throughout the interrogation, watching complacently while all the torture took place. Every time she was able to open her eyes and every time she was beaten, Amaral was there, walking from one side to another without ever trying to prevent any of the torture carried out by his subordinates. CONCLUSION Given the high degree of credibility of the testimony of Leonor Cipriano, which is now not only supported by her brother John Cipriano, but also by Anthony David Leandro Silva, her partner and father of her two youngest children, and above all by the absolutely credible testimony of the Director of Odemira Prison, Dr. Ana Maria Calado, and in fact supported by medical expertise, I believe this is a case where there is clear prima facie evidence of a crime of torture perpetrated by officials of the Portuguese Judicial Police on Leonor Cipriano. It is completely unacceptable that officials of the Policia Judiciara continue to use medieval methods to obtain confessions at all costs, even if they are false. Remember that during the Spanish Inquisition 600 years ago, you would have been tortured to death if you refused to admit that you were guilty of witchcraft. This behaviour from one of the key organs of the state - from police officers of the national Judiciary Police - is highly detrimental to the image of Portugal, which is now completely under the rule of law, is now an active a member of the European Union, and a defender of human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Such medieval conduct should be thoroughly dealt with in case it deals a further blow to the trust of Portuguese and foreign citizens in the Portuguese legal system. In fact an authority such as the Policia Judiciara, given that it is responsible for ensuring that people comply with the law, has a much increased duty, compared with the ordinary citizen, to set an example of complying with the law. The crime of these inspectors has special moral and legal considerations. We need to re-establish and maintain the parameters of the rule of law that constitutionally enshrine democratic Portugal. Unless this Cipriano case is dealt with properly, there is a risk that our country could once again be ranked, nationally and internationally, as a fascist country, as has already been insinuated in some foreign newspapers. We can not fail to highlight the parallels between the cases of the disappearance of Joana Cipriano and that of Madeleine McCann. Both disappeared a few miles away from each other, and both cases were investigated by the same Department of Criminal Investigation of Portimao's Judicial Police. In the first case, no valid evidence was collected against Leonor Cipriano. In the second case, there has been a succession of unpunished leakages of information arising from the PJ's investigation. There have been repeated stories leaked to the national press where it refers to 'a PJ source' or 'a source close to the investigation', and so forth. In the second case, that of Madeleine, there is, despite the scattergun release of so-called 'information', absolutely no evidence against Kate and Gerry McCann. This was implicitly admitted by the Director of the PJ himself, Alipio Ribero, when he declared that making the McCanns 'arguidos' was 'hasty'. By contrast, the suspects, Kate and Gerry McCann, are prohibited from discussing the case to the press, preventing them from exercising their legitimate right to defend themselves against slander promoted all the time by so-called 'sources close to the investigation'. Read for example the appalling article written by the Fondation Princesse de Croÿ, with the very direct title: "Madeleine McCann possibly eaten by Portuguese pigs" – (see http://fondationprincessedecroy.over-blog.org/article-12736754.html) This article reveals how in Canada the international image of the Portuguese judicial authorities and of Portugal itself is being tarnished. It is therefore necessary that the Portuguese state eliminates once and for all the persistent attacks on human rights that are still raging with impunity, especially in the Portguese police and amongst those who claim to be agents of law and defenders of those rights at a national level. This should lead not only to the punishment of the offenders, because that only indirectly prevents further abuse by the state authorities, but also to our taking direct preventive action. We need to make a strong and pro-active effort to eliminate any development within all the organs of the police authorities that are not the result of a genuine training in all the technical, disciplinary, legal and moral components of modern policing, both in theory and practice. I therefore submit to this court this new complaint about the case to all the relevant national authorities. I am also submitting this complaint to the human rights organisations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. I conclude my report today by disseminating this vehement and emotional message of Leonor Cipriano, which was personally written and signed by herself just today: "I want my daughter Joana found, not only so that I can be with her once again, but also to show the world that it is you - Goncalo Amaral and the inspectors of the Policia Judiciaria - who tortured me and who are the real monsters in this case". 8-4-2008. Leonor Cipriano. No. 34. It is better for there to be some guilty people in freedom, than for there to be one innocent in prison. Portimao, 08 April 2008 The Reporter, Marcos Aragao Correia, Attorney (Professional lawyer identity document No.427M), and ACED lawyer (Association Against Exclusion for Development). ---------------- PDF Download: SOS PRISÕES click here to download file

"Aragao Correia needs to be hospitalised", 07 February 2009

"Aragao Correia needs to be hospitalised" 24horas (page 10)   Goncalo Amaral suggests that the attorney suffers from psychiatric problems   Text: Duarte Baiao 07 February 2009   The former Inspector of the Policia Judiciária in Portimao confirmed he will proceed with a lawsuit against Marcos Aragao Correia and suggested that the attorney suffers from psychological problems. He also reaffirmed that he is not an arguido for torture against Leandro Silva Goncalo Amaral suggested yesterday, in statements to 24horas, that Marcos Aragao Correia, lawyer for Leonor Cipriano, suffers from a psychiatric illness. This is another episode of verbal war between the ex-inspector of police in Portimao and the lawyer. "Friends of mine who are connected to medicine, with whom I have spoken, tell me that Aragao Correia is in need of being compulsorily admitted. I think that says it all," said Goncalo Amaral. "For me, it is not as a person, but only as a lawyer," said the former inspector. That the lawyer has said that the former inspector has been constituted an arguido by the Public Ministry, due to the practice of alleged crimes of torture against Leandro Silva, husband of Leonor Cipriano, Goncalo Amaral was peremptory: "No comment because everything is false. I will move with a case (against Aragao Correia). When? Inside the legally established period, that is, I have six months to do so."   The quest to be the leading character   The former inspector of the PJ is to be judged in a case where Leonor Cipriano, mother of Joana, guarantees to have been tortured on the premises of the PJ in order to admit the death of her daughter and the place where the corpse was hidden. In this case, Amaral is charged with failing to denounce. However, Marcos Aragao Correia wants to prove the veracity of the thesis of torture.   "Mr Aragao Correia has a goal, and that is the demand to be the leading character in the limelight. But he also knows that he follows the Order of Lawyers [Bar Association]. I will deal with the case by that establishment, I will deal with the case in court and, I stress, if necessary with a compulsory internment, and that, it seems, is what that man requires," concluded Goncalo Amaral.   24horas tried to talk to Aragao Correia, but he has remained uncontactable.   Still no date   Antonio Cabrita, the lawyer of Goncalo Amaral, told 24horas that he had not spoken to his client about the possibility of the two processes: Against Aragao Correia and Leandro Silva. In any case, Antonio Cabrita acknowledged, Goncalo Amaral "would not even need" his services as he "knows how to bring these cases."

Amaral wants Leonor's lawyer committed, 15 June 2009

Amaral wants Leonor's lawyer committed Correio da Manha Controversy: Former coordinator says lawyer has hallucinations   Manuela Teixeira / Tânia Laranjo 15 June 2009 - 00h30 Thanks to Joana Morais for translation   The former coordinator of the PJ, Goncalo Amaral, will request from the Public Ministry of Faro a series of psychiatric examinations and assessments into the personality of Marcos Aragao Correia, suggesting even that he is committed. In the appendage to the criminal process for defamation against Leonor Cipriano's lawyer, Goncalo Amaral defends that the accused suffers from a 'pathological imbalance with traits of social dangerousness.'   With this appendage, Goncalo Amaral, wants to verify the non-imputability of the Madeiran lawyer, who supports Kate and Gerry McCanns' abduction thesis in the Maddie Case and who assumed the defence of Leonor Cipriano, Joana's mother, in the case of aggressions which saw five elements of the PJ sat at the defendants bench.   'Marcos Aragao seems, indeed, a permanent danger to himself and to others,' said Amaral in the document to the Public Ministry(PM). Convinced that the examinations will prove the dangerousness of the lawyer, the former coordinator asks the PM for preventive measures to be applied. 'Dangerousness, which, if confirmed, may require appropriate and regular psychiatric monitoring, or ultimately the preventive commitment to a mental hospital.', refers the document.   Among the probatory material presented are news articles with public declarations made by the lawyer. 'Aragao Correia affirmed that he is a psychic medium, and he assured that he had visions of Maddie and Joana', quoting the weekly newspaper SOL. Other news articles refer to the conviction [belief] of Aragao regarding the intervention of secret societies, led by Bush [the former US president], whose objective was to create a climate of insecurity in order to implement the implantation of electronic chips in children.   The CM has tried, without success, to contact and speak with Aragao Correia.   Profile   Marcos Aragao Correia, a Madeira lawyer, came to the Algarve in December 2007 to search for Maddie in a dam. He assumed the patronage of Leonor Cipriano in order to lead the accusations against the PJ.

Addendum to the Criminal Process for Defamation Against Marcos Aragao Correia, 16 June 2009

Addendum to the Criminal Process for Defamation Against Marcos Aragao Correia Joana Morais 16 June 2009, 12:36 With thanks to Astro for translation Brief introductory note: The hereunder addendum belongs to a process for criminal defamation and vilification against Marcos Aragao Correia filed by Dr. Goncalo Amaral in April 2008. While this process is at the moment stalled in the Public Ministry, a counter-complaint filed against Dr. Goncalo Amaral by the psychic lawyer, in October 2008, was urged forward. The following document is published with the author's permission ------------------- JUDICIAL COURT OF FARO PUBLIC MINISTRY SERVICES Process 87/08.8JAFAR 1ST SECTION Mr Prosecutor, Goncalo Amaral, the offended party with the capacity to constitute himself as an assistant, and better identified in the files, comes forward to APPEND the following to the criminal complaint that was presented against arguido Marcos Aragao, under the rights of petition and of probatory intervention: 1. The arguido has publicly displayed what seems to be a manifest lack of balance of pathological origin, ruled by streaks of social dangerousness, which deposes in favour of his eventual lack of imputability and impedes him, if that scenario is confirmed, from being the target of an accusation dispatch. 2. Taking into account that, under the provision of law, the "public and notorious facts" also constitute evidence, it is possible to collect from the press, in a brief search through the internet, the following probatory material, with which the present addendum is rendered objective: DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS, 22.06.2007: Madeira. Fifty children will launch yellow balloons with a photo of little Madeleine, who disappeared fifty days ago today. Aragao Correia, one of the organisers, explains why he considers it to be important for Madeira to join this homage. (Cfr. document nr. 1) SOL, 13.11.2007: A lawyer from Madeira, Marcos Aragao Correia, has judicially prosecuted the Portuguese postal service for failing to personally deliver a registered letter that was addressed to the McCann couple, in which he indicated leads that he considers could assist the investigation, and which he had already revealed to the Polícia Judiciária in Funchal. "As I didn't get any feed-back from the PJ – he explains -, I decided to communicate them directly to the child’s parents, in a letter." (Cfr. document nr. 2) SOL, 13.11.2007: Lawsuit against the Portuguese postal service. The judge has ruled the bad faith litigation that had been filed by the lawyer to be unfounded, condemning him to pay a judicial fee of approximately 100 euros, and has postponed the trial sine die. (Cfr. document nr. 3) BARLAVENTO, 07.02.2008: Lawyer from Madeira claims to know everything. A lawyer from Madeira is the most recent star in the search for Madeleine. Marcos Aragao Correia, who went as far as filing a lawsuit against the Portuguese postal service, has headed a search operation with divers at the reservoir, on Saturday. He only found a shutters’ strap. (Cfr. document nr. 4) IOL.DIÁRIO, 12.03.2008: Lawyer from Madeira reinforces searches at the Arade dam. Marcos Aragao Correia is a lawyer, and for the second time within only a few months, he is heading searches at the Arade dam, in Silves. The searches have started again this Monday and strange objects have been found already. Several ropes, a sheet of plastic and a child's sock. (Cfr. document nr. 5) DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS, 15.03.2008: Upon conclusion of the searches, Marcos Aragao Correia said his conscience was at peace. "I don't leave disillusioned, because I've done what I could in the face of information that I consider to be credible." (Cfr. document nr. 6) PORTUGAL DIÁRIO, 12.03.2008: And what moves Aragao Correia? The lawyer says that he has received "credible leads" concerning what happened to Maddie. "For the time being, we can't publicly reveal the leads and who offered them, due to security concerns." (Cfr. document nr. 7) SOL, 15.12.2008: Aragao Correia states that he is a medium and has had 'visions' of Maddie and Joana, asserting that he saw the body of the little English girl at the Arade dam. Searches were carried out in the area, but revealed to be fruitless. "In that case I committed a serious mistake. I revealed my plans with anticipation and the person responsible for Maddie's death had time to go there and remove the body." (Cfr. document nr. 8) DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS, 13.03.2008: Lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia is increasingly convinced of the relationship between the possible death of Maddie with that of Mari Luz, from Huelva, whose body was found. "There are no doubts left – he says – that the criminal abducted Madeleine and fled to Spain, where he abducted another girl, Mari Luz." (Cfr. document nr. 9) CAMARADECOMUNS.BLOGS.SAPO.PT, 04.12.2008: Today, the 4th of December, I read what I never thought would be possible to read about the Maddie and Joana cases. The illustrious lawyer Dr Marcos Aragao Correia believes that there is an intervention by British secret services and secret societies, namely the "Skull and Bones", to which he states that president George Bush belongs, whose purpose it is to create a climate of insecurity to promote the implementation of chips in children. (Cfr. document nr. 10) BARLAVENTO, 17.10.2008: Marcos Aragao Correia, lawyer to Leonor Cipriano, is going to request police protection. "We've been targeted by threats – he said -, mentioning that one of the arguidos in the process compared him to his dog, saying that when one is playing at an inappropriate time, one should receive a correctional slap on one's back." (Cfr. document nr. 11) SOL, 22.01.2009: Leonor Cipriano's lawyer is thrown out of court. Before the trial session started, he was notified: he is preventively suspended by the Lawyers' Order. 15 minutes later, he returned to the court room saying that the situation was already solved. The judge threw him out of the room: "Get yourself out of here," he ordered. (Cfr. document nr. 12) IOL.DIÁRIO, 22.01.2009: Marcos Aragao Correia announced that he is going to request the annulment of today's audience. "I'm filing a complaint with the Magistrates' Superior Counsel, against the president of the judge panel." (Cfr. document nr. 13) DIÁRIO DIGITAL, 22.01.2009: Marcos Aragao Correia advances that judge Henrique Pavao has a partial attitude. In order to justify the partial attitude, the lawyer said that the magistrate refused 40 requests from the assistant. (Cfr. document nr. 14) BARLAVENTO, 20.02.2009: Today, presiding judge Henrique Pavao recalled that the request that was made by Aragao Correia should not have been presented at the court of Faro, but at the court of superior hierarchy. But for reasons of process economy, the judge himself sent Aragao's request to the Appeals Court of Évora. (Cfr. document nr. 15) BARLAVENTO, 21.03.2009: Appeals Court of Évora denies provision on removal of presiding judge. (Cfr. document nr. 16) DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS, 23.04.2009: Leonor Cipriano's lawyer accuses judge of censorship. Aragao Correia, who presented today yet another complaint about the judge to the Magistrates' Superior Counsel, argued that Henrique Pavao, without any justification that is acceptable under the law, abruptly, and for 6 times, interrupted his allegations, causing him "manifest disturbance". (Cfr. document nr. 17) SOL, 28.01.2009: Leonor Cipriano's lawyer asked GNR today to search at "an abandoned house up in the hills of Figueira", where Joana's mother confessed that Joao Cipriano buried the little girl's body. (Cfr. document nr. 18) DIÁRIO DE NOTÍCIAS, 08.06.2009: Leonor Cipriano's lawyer says that the former – who was condemned to 16 years in prison over the co-authorship of Joana's murder – must be acquitted. The lawyer says that he "bluffed" with Joao Cipriano in order to convince him to sign a confession in which he stated that he tried to sell the little girl. Aragao told Leonor's sister that he had heard that a convict who had been condemned to over 20 years in prison for homicide, was about to be transferred to Carregueira prison with the purpose of murdering him. (Cfr. document nr. 19) 3. If he weren't the victim of a serious pathology, Marcos Aragao Correia would certainly be determined to disturb public peace and the mental health of populations with psychic "visions" of missing children, extraterrestrial informants, searches in reservoirs, warnings about the mass implementation of chips in children and teenagers, without forgetting to deliberately compare himself with a canine and to shame the legal profession in court rooms, with an endless succession of requests that are rejected due to their absurdity, calls to attention from the judge, interrupted allegations and expulsion from court. 4. Two questions pose themselves in view of the above mentioned pieces of evidence, which reflect, in the victim's perspective, a vast curriculum of insanity over a brief period of time: 1st – The question of the lack of imputability of Marcos Aragao Correia, or rather the question of the accentuated probability that the subject suffered, during the practise of the facts under investigation, of a psychic anomaly (permanent or non-censorable accidental) that may have rendered him incapable of evaluating the unlawfulness of his behaviour and to auto-determine himself according to law, which, if confirmed, prevents the Public Ministry from deducting an accusation, given the fact that the probatory indications will then not result in a reasonable probability of him being condemned in trial; 2nd – The question of Marcos Aragao Correia constituting a danger to the social community and to the juridical goods that are sustained by it, a danger that, if confirmed, may impose due regular psychiatric treatment or, in last instance, the preventive commitment to a psychiatric hospital or analogous institution. 5. Apart from what is established in the Mental Health Law, the Penal Code itself clearly determines that anyone who practises a typical illicit action and is considered not to be imputable, is committed to a cure, treatment or safety institution, whenever there is a sustained reason to believe that he may commit facts of the same kind. And Marcos Aragao does, indeed, seem to constitute a permanent danger to himself and to others. 6. The following diligences are considered to be relevant and pertinent to the establishment and good decision of the cause, as well as for the apparently necessary treatment of arguido Marcos Aragao, constituting simple process incidents without autonomous transit: The performance of a psychiatric examination of the arguido, which will evaluate psychical characteristics with pathological causes that may raise the issue of his lack of imputability and the consequent impossibility of the pronunciation of an accusatory dispatch; The performance of an examination of the arguido's personality, which may evaluate psychical characteristics independently of pathological causes in order to determine his personality and level of danger, as this possible danger may be attenuated through regular psychiatric treatment or, as a last instance, through preventive commitment to a psychiatric hospital or a similar institution. Thus Your Excellency is requested to integrate the present ADDENDUM and the appended documents to the files, as well as to put mechanisms into action in the sense of obtaining the performance of the competent examinations. APPENDED: Copy and 19 documents. The offended with the ability to constitute himself an assistant GONCALO AMARAL

Letter from Marcos Aragao Correia to Amnesty International, 01 January 2012

Letter from Marcos Aragao Correia to Amnesty International CMOMM 01 January 2012 ------------- From: Marcos Aragao Correia - Advogado [Advocate/Lawyer] Date: 1 January 2012 - 17:06hrs Subject: Urgent - Torture against Leonor Cipriano by the Portuguese State Dear ***** *******, I want to inform Amnesty International that I'm being a victim of illegal and brutal persecution by the Portuguese State. As you know, I'm the lawyer of Leonor Cipriano, the Portuguese lady that was brutally tortured by police officers of the Portuguese State. This torture, as you also know, was proven by a Jury Court, and its verdict was confirmed by the Appeal Court. In the sequence, two police officers were convicted for torture-related crimes, one of them Goncalo de Sousa Amaral, the leader of the police team, who was convicted for perjury to a 1 year and 6 months suspended jail sentence, because it was proven that he knew since the moment of the crime that Leonor Cipriano was tortured by the police, but he lied, saying that she wasn't. Nevertheless, after the jury verdict, the Portuguese State accused me of criminal libel for writing a report dated before the beginning of that same trial, where the testimony of Leonor Cipriano about the torture she suffered was divulged. A university teacher, President of a Portuguese association (ACED) that has divulged the report, was also accused. Despite the efforts to prove that the accusation was illegal, the Portuguese State has notified us on 23 December 2011 for us to be judged by a non-Jury court for criminal libel against the already convicted Goncalo de Sousa Amaral! This is clearly an evil and illegal manoeuvre by the Portuguese State in order to question the torture verdict, a verdict that can not be modified by another appeal (no more appeals are allowed). In order to guarantee the human rights of Leonor Cipriano and me as her lawyer, we ask Amnesty International to intervene urgently, denouncing publicly this absolutely illegal court action against us. Notification of the Portuguese State attached. Thank you very much! Kind Regards, Marcos Aragao Correia, Lawyer for Leonor Maria Domingos Cipriano.

Joana Case: Leonor Cipriano's lawyer to be tried in February over defamation, 03 January 2012

Joana Case: Leonor Cipriano's lawyer to be tried in February over defamation Visao 3 January 2012, 19:52 With thanks to Astro for translation Lisbon, 03 Jan (Lusa) - Leonor Cipriano's lawyer, Marcos Aragao Correia, starts to be tried on the 9th of February due to allegedly defaming Goncalo Amaral, the Judiciary Police inspector who coordinated the investigation into the disappearance of Joana, in 2004. The hearings will take place at the Court of Faro's Second Criminal Circuit and Goncalo Amaral demands compensation in the amount of three thousand euros from Marcos Aragao Correia, as well as from the arguido Antonio Pedro Dores, the head of the Association Against Exclusion through Development (ACED). According to a judicial source, what lies at stake is a document dated April 8, 2008, titled "Report About Torture of Leonor Cipriano perpetrated by the Judiciary Police", which Aragao Correia wrote for ACED and which was publicised by the Association. ---------------- Court details Citius Process Number: 87/08.8JAFAR 2º Criminal Court Common Process (Singular Court) Author Public Ministry Plaintiff Goncalo de Sousa Amaral Arguido Marcos Teixeira da Fonte Aragao Correia Arguido Antonio Pedro de Andrade Dores Judgement or final hearing 09-02-2012 9:30 and 28-02-2012 14:00

Leonor Cipriano's lawyer tried in February over defamation, 03 January 2012

Leonor Cipriano's lawyer tried in February over defamation Correio da Manha Leonor Cipriano's lawyer, Marcos Aragao Correia, starts to be tried on the 9th of February due to allegedly defaming Goncalo Amaral, the Judiciary Police inspector who coordinated the investigation into the disappearance of Joana, in 2004. 03 January 2012 The hearings will take place at the Court of Faro's Second Criminal Circuit and Goncalo Amaral demands compensation of three thousand euros from Marcos Aragao Correia, as well as from the arguido Antonio Pedro Dores, the head of the Association Against Exclusion for Development (ACED). According to a judicial source, what lies at stake is a document dated April 8, 2008, titled "Report About Torture of Leonor Cipriano perpetrated by the Judiciary Police", which Aragao Correia wrote for ACED and which was publicised by the Association. Goncalo Amaral, who was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for the same period, in the trial of the former detectives and inspectors of the PJ who were accused of torturing the mother of Joana, considered that the report was "damaging to his honour and his personal and professional reputation". "Torture has been proven in the final court of appeal and Mr. Goncalo Amaral was convicted on part of the charge against him, precisely because he lied to the court system by stating that there was no torture, when he proved that he had knowledge of the same torture from the moment that it occurred. So there is no defamation in the report," said Aragao Correia to Lusa on Tuesday. Leonor Cipriano's lawyer added that this process of defamation "is a flagrant violation of the principle of res judicata [a matter [already] judged], as it is clear that the prosecutor has made, and is maintaining, the charge of defamation against me despite judgments which prove, unanimously, the torture". Aragao Correia has requested the intervention of the attorney general, Pinto Monteiro, "in order to clarify the inconsistency and the total and absolute illegality of the prosecutors in this current heinous accusation of defamation which does not exist." At the trial of former detectives and inspectors of the PJ in Faro in 2009, Leonel Marques Bom, Paulo Pereira Cristovao and Paulo Marques Bom were acquitted of the crime of torture, while Antonio Nunes Cardoso was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment, suspended for two years, for filing a false report. Goncalo Amaral was acquitted of the crime of omission of denunciation. Subsequently, the Appeals Court of Évora upheld the sentences. The disappearance of Joana, from the village of Figueira, near Portimao, occurred on September 12, 2004. The body of the child, who was eight years old at the time, has never been discovered and Leonor Cipriano and her brother, Joao Cipriano, were sentenced to 16 years in prison each on charges of murder and concealment of a corpse.

Lawyer who has been accused of defamation by Goncalo Amaral wants Attorney General intervention, 04 January 2012

Lawyer who has been accused of defamation by Goncalo Amaral wants Attorney General intervention Sapo with Lusa 04 January 2012, 12:36 With thanks to Astro for translation Leonor Cipriano's lawyer, who will be tried in February over defamation against Goncalo Amaral, a PJ inspector and investigator in the "Joana Case", has asked Portugal's Attorney General to take an "urgent position" concerning the "heinous" accusation that he has been subject to. "I write with the goal of obtaining your urgent position concerning the heinous and vile libelous accusation that has been made by prosecutors who are your subordinates," lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia mentions in a letter to [Attorney General] Pinto Monteiro. In the letter, which Lusa agency had access to, the lawyer stresses that the torture that Leonor Cipriano was the victim of was "clearly proved", unanimously, in a Jury Court, and later fully confirmed, without further possibility of appeal, by the Appeals Court of Évora.

Trials and Tribulations..., 05 January 2012

Trials and Tribulations... Notes from a Potting Shedder Thursday, 5 January 2012 14:24 Liars and fantasists... there have been a fair few over the years. So many that one could be tempted to write a bewk about them... Or has that already been done? Here's another one... Leonor Cipriano, accused of an incestuous relationship with her brother, murdering her 8 year old daughter, Joana and disposing of her body by feeding her to the pigs. Absolutely barbaric. Alongside her lover/brother, she was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in prison. She later claimed she was tortured into confessing, but police said Cipriano tried to commit suicide by throwing herself off a staircase. The trial commenced... 5 officers stood accused of torture. As co-ordinator of the PJ in Faro at that time, Goncalo Amaral was also made arguido. Although the judges considered that Cipriano had been beaten, it could not be established by whom. We all know that child rapists and murderers do not fare well in prison, and I can imagine a long line of prisoners vying for their own piece of Cipriano pie. With no witnesses to the alleged torture acts, the final ruling ended up being based on the reports from forensic experts, which were not founded on a physical examination of Cipriano, but rather on photographs that had been published years earlier by Expresso, and whose authenticity is still questioned. Three inspectors, Leonel Marques, Pereira Cristovao and Paulo Marques Bom, were all acquitted and cleared of torture. Senor Amaral was cleared of a charge of failing to report a crime but found guilty of perjury because he upheld, under oath the version that he had been given by his subordinates, that Cipriano had been injured when she tried to commit suicide. This was considered to be a false testimony because the facts that Sr Amaral testified to, could not be proved. His defence was that he could not have given another version of the facts because this was what the inspectors who witnessed the episode, reported to him. Antonio Nunes Cardoso's report merely described the manner in which Cipriano fell on the stairs. Upon considering that she had been beaten by someone, this automatically removed the value of Cardoso's report. He was found guilty of falsifying documents and given a two-and-a-half year suspended jail sentence. The jurors and the collective of judges at the Court of Faro considered that Cipriano's deposition had "no credibility". According to judge Henrique Pavao, she changed her version several times and lightly accused persons of aggressing her, based on a list of names that she carried into the court room. "She lied about the identification of the aggressors and she lied about other crucial aspects," the judge mentioned. Concerning the photographs that were taken of Leonor, which were included in the process, the collective considered that they were "of weak quality" and that therefore, "it was not possible to conclude safely about what really happened". Which leads us onto the recent news that Cipriano's lawyer, Marcos Aragao Correia and Pedro Antonio, president of ACED will be tried in early February for the alleged defamation of Goncalo Amaral. At issue is a document dated 8th April 2008 and entitled "Report on Torture Leonor Cipriano". The section below appears to be the offending passage... "At the request of prosecutors, Leonor Cipriano tried to identify the inspectors that tortured her. In her mind, she was transported to Evora in 2006 to try to recognize some of the torturers from the six inspectors. Unfortunately, given the lapse of time, and with a bag over her head many times when attacked, and the possibility of not being on-site recognition of all offenders, Leonor was only able to say with absolute certainty, Goncalo Amaral, the then coordinator of the DIC of Portimao, was present during interrogation, watching the torture with ease, because every time she uncovered her eyes and was beaten, he was there, walking from one side to another, without ever attempting to stop the torture carried out by his subordinates." - Marcos Aragao Correia Senor Amaral is suing each arguido for €3000. A rather low sum, you may say... however we all know that taking such action in Portugal is all about writing the wrongs and not for monetary gain. Perhaps the reason that the McCanns never sued the Portuguese press, yet settled out of court with the British media for later printing the very same newspaper reports. Remind me just who the money-grubbers are...

Marinho to testify, 28 January 2012

Marinho to testify Correio da Manha By M.A.G. 28 Janauary 2012 1:00 am The president of the bar [Order of Lawyers], Marinho Pinto, will be a witness for the McCanns against Goncalo Amaral, in the civil case that Madeleine's parents have brought against the former coordinator of the Directorate of Judicial Police of Portimao, Correio da Manha has learned. The president Marinho Pinto Marinho Pinto has made himself available to testify, in person, against the former coordinator at the trial that was scheduled to start next week but was postponed by the judge, who granted the request of the McCanns to hear several English witnesses by videoconference. Goncalo Amaral was successful, in the Appeals Court, against the injunction which prevented publication of his book "The Truth of the Lie," where he defended the thesis that Maddie had died in the Algarve. The judges held that the prohibition of publication of the book violated the Constitution.

Trial for alleged defamation of Goncalo Amaral postponed to March 29, 08 February 2012

Trial for alleged defamation of Goncalo Amaral postponed to March 29 SIC Noticias Lusa 08.02.2012 19:37 With thanks to Astro for translation The trial of lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia and of the university teacher Antonio Pedro Dores, over defamation of former PJ inspector Goncalo Amaral, within the case of Leonor Cipriano, which was to take place on Thursday, in Faro, has been postponed to the 29th of March. Isabel Duarte, Marcos Aragao Correia's lawyer, has told Lusa Agency that by a dispatch from Faro Judicial Court, the trial was postponed to the 29th of March, at 9.30 a.m. Despite not having had Access to said dispatch yet, the lawyer said that she had been informed, by telephone, that the postponement was due to a pending appeal, which was filed by the other arguido in the process, Antonio Pedro Dores, the president of the Association Against Exclusion through Development, whose defence attorney is José Preto. For the trial in Faro, Marcos Aragao Correia has called Antonio Marinho Pinto, presently the head of the Lawyers' Order, and Ana Maria Calado, the former director of Odemira Prison, as defence witnesses. Former Judiciary Police (PJ) inspector Goncalo Amaral – who investigated the disappearance of Joana, the daughter of arguida Leonor Ciprinao – has criminally sued Marcos Aragao Correia and Antonio Pedro Dores, because they publicly alluded to the alleged torture that Leonor Cipriano was a target of during the Joana case's questioning stage. Marcos Aragao Correia, lawyer to Leonor Cipriano, alleges that the Portuguese courts have already decided that it has been proved that His client was tortured, yet the Public Ministry (MP) continues to uphold the accusation in the defamation lawsuit that Goncalo Amaral has filed. He further recalls that, within the alleged case of torture of Leonor Cipriano, Goncalo Amaral was condemned over the crime of false statement, to a one-and-a-half-year prison sentence, which was suspended over the same period of time. The defendant of Marcos Aragao Correia in the defamation lawsuit is lawyer Isabel Duarte, who is equally the lawyer for Madeleine McCann's parents, who has pending lawsuits against Goncalo Amaral. The trial in Lisbon over the defamation lawsuit that has been filed by the parents of Madeleine McCann, the little girl that disappeared in the Algarve, in May 2007, which was equally scheduled for Thursday, has also been postponed, without a new date, according to lawyer Isabel Duarte's indication to Lusa. That process concerns Goncalo Amaral's book, "Maddie: A verdade da mentira".

Trial for alleged defamation of Goncalo Amaral, 29 March 2012

Trial for alleged defamation of Goncalo Amaral Diário de Notícias Starts today in Faro By Lusa 29 March 2012 The lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia and university professor Antonio Pedro Dores will today be tried by the Court of Faro, for the alleged defamation of former PJ inspector Goncalo Amaral. The former inspector, who investigated the disappearance of Joana, the daughter of Leonor Cipriano, is suing both because they publicly alluded to the alleged torture that Leonor Cipriano was a target of during the Joana case's questioning stage. Aragao Correia, lawyer to Leonor Cipriano, alleges that the Portuguese courts have already decided that it has been proved that his client was tortured, yet the Public Ministry (MP) continues to uphold the accusation in the defamation lawsuit that Goncalo Amaral has filed. Remember that, in the case of the alleged torture of Leonor Cipriano, Goncalo Amaral was convicted of the crime of false testimony, for one year and six months of imprisonment, suspended for the same period. The trial should have started in February but was postponed due to a pending appeal, brought by Antonio Pedro Dores, professor and chair of the Association Against Exclusion for Development (ACED). Marcos Aragao Correia has enrolled as defense witnesses the current Chairman of the Lawyers Order, Antonio Marinho Pinto, and the former director of Odemira Prison, Ana Maria Calado.

Trial for defamation of Goncalo Amaral postponed, 29 March 2012

Trial for defamation of Goncalo Amaral postponed Diário de Notícias By Lusa 29 March 2012 The trial of lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia and university professor Antonio Pedro Dores, for defamation of former PJ inspector Goncalo Amaral, was today postponed again, until April 18, said a source close to the process. According to what reporters were told by the lawyer of Antonio Pedro Dores, the only one involved in the process to appear in court, Goncalo Amaral asked to be heard through videoconferencing. Also absent was the lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia, who lives in Funchal, who made the same application [as Goncalo Amaral] to the Court of Faro, forcing the trial to be postponed for the second time. The former inspector, who investigated the disappearance of Joana, the daughter of Leonor Cipriano, is suing both because they publicly alluded to the alleged torture that Leonor Cipriano was a target of during the Joana case's questioning stage. Aragao Correia, lawyer to Leonor Cipriano, alleges that the Portuguese courts have already decided that it has been proved that his client was tortured, yet the Public Ministry (MP) continues to uphold the accusation in the defamation lawsuit that Goncalo Amaral has filed. The trial should have begun in February, but pending an appeal brought by Antonio Pedro Dores, it was postponed to today.

Court details (revised), 30 March 2012

Court details (revised) Citius Process Number: 87/08.8JAFAR 2º Criminal Court Common Process (Singular Court) Author Public Ministry Plaintiff Goncalo de Sousa Amaral Arguido Marcos Teixeira da Fonte Aragao Correia Arguido Antonio Pedro de Andrade Dores Judgement or final hearing 29-03-2012 9:30 and 18-04-2012 9:30

Defamation of Goncalo Amaral starts to be judged, 18 April 2012

Defamation of Goncalo Amaral starts to be judged Correio da Manha 18 April 2012 With thanks to Joana Morais for translation The lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia and the university professor Antonio Pedro Dores start being judged today at the Court of Faro for the alleged defamation of the former inspector of the Judiciary Police inspector Goncalo Amaral, after two postponements of the first court session. The former inspector who investigated Joana's disappearance, Leonor Cipriano's daughter, has sued both for publicly alluding to the alleged torture that Leonor was subjected to during an interrogation. Aragao Correia, Leonor Cipriano's lawyer, alleges that the courts have already proved that his client was tortured, however the Public Ministry has kept the accusation within the scope of the defamation process made by Goncalo Amaral. The lawyer also recalls that Goncalo Amaral, within the scope of the alleged torture of Leonor Cipriano, was declared guilty of the crime of false deposition and sentenced to a year and six months suspended sentence. Marcos Aragao Correia requested as witnesses for his defence the current head of the Portuguese Order of Lawyers, Antonio Marinho e Pinto, and the former director of the Odemira penitentiary Ana Maria Calado [during the trial of the five PJ inspectors it was alleged that inmates could have beaten Leonor Cipriano]. The trial should have started in February but was postponed to March 29 due to a legal expedient made by Antonio Pedro Dores, professor and chairman of the ACED. On March 29 the court postponed again the initial trial session for today because Goncalo Amaral requested to be heard by video-conference, according to an explanation given by a lawyer who is intervening in the process. Absent from that session was the Madeira lawyer, Marcos Aragao Correia, who made an identical request to the court which forced the trial to be postponed for a second time.

Marcos Aragao Correia absent from the trial, 18 April 2012

Marcos Aragao Correia absent from the trial Lusa News Agency Trial for the alleged defamation of Goncalo Amaral started without the presence of the former PJ inspector and the Madeira lawyer 18 April 2012 With thanks to Joana Morais for translation The trial for the alleged defamation of Goncalo Amaral started today at the Court of Faro, after being postponed twice, without the presence of the former inspector of the Judiciary Police and the lawyer and arguido Marcos Aragao Correia. In the court session scheduled for today only one of the arguidos appeared, Antonio Pedro Dores, professor and president of the ACED. According to the Court, Goncalo Amaral refused to give his current address, giving as his residence the address of the PSP of Olivais headquarters in Lisbon.

Acquittals sought for 'defamers' of Goncalo Amaral in the 'Joana case', 27 June 2012

Acquittals sought for 'defamers' of Goncalo Amaral in the 'Joana case' TVI24 Lawyer and professor were accused of defaming the former PJ inspector, for the alleged torture of Leonor Cipriano, who was convicted for killing her daughter By Redaccao / CM 27-06-2012 17:10 The Public Ministry asked, on Wednesday, for the acquittal of a lawyer and a university professor accused of defaming Goncalo Amaral, in a session marked by the return to court of Leonor Cipriano, convicted for her daughter's death in September 2004, in the Algarve. During the session, in which the closing arguments were read, the court of Faro heard that the PM's delegate considered that the conditions to produce convictions had not been satisfied. Aragao Correia, a lawyer for Leonor Correia, and university professor Antonio Pedro Dores, president of the Association Against Exclusion for Development (ACED), are accused of defaming the former inspector, who investigated, for nearly eight years, the disappearance of Joana, daughter of Leonor Cipriano. In an article which reported on the torture, published by that association, Goncalo Amaral, now retired, was mentioned as one of the torturers of Leonor. In closing arguments, the PM's representative held that the acquittal is justified because it was proven that there really was torture, practiced by members of the PJ at the police premises in Faro, even if it had not been able to prove exactly who had undertaken the torture. According to the delegate, even though there are different accounts of what actually happened on the PJ premises on the 14th and 15th of October, 2004, it no longer makes sense to speak of defamation because all evidence points to the existence of torture. On the other hand, he stressed the consistency of Leonor Cipriano concerning the authorship of Goncalo Amaral as one of the perpetrators of the attacks, although the mother of Joana has different versions on other aspects of the events. The attorney also criticized the "badly told story" that Leonor Cipriano's injuries could be from a fall down the stairs of the PJ premises in Faro, as reported in a police report. Earlier, Leonor Cipriano, who is serving time in Odemira Prison, reported in court what happened that day, reiterating that on the afternoon of October 14, 2004, she was tortured by six members of the PJ, including Goncalo Amaral. According to the account of Leonor, heard as a witness, the inspectors put a bag over her head, kicked her around the body and hit her with a telephone book and a hard cardboard object. Allegedly, the attacks continued later when they forced her to kneel on glass ashtrays with two sharp edges, which, according to her, were supplied by Goncalo Amaral. In her story, that had to be interrupted by the presiding judge when the witness began to cry, prior to the physical torture Leonor was placed for a long time in an office with a pistol on the desk. The Court of Faro has marked July 17 for sentencing in the case. On May 22, 2009, Goncalo Amaral, now retired, was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for false testimony, which was suspended for the same period, in the trial of the alleged attacks on Leonor Cipriano, but was acquitted on the criminal charge of omission of denunciation [failure to report a crime]. The trial involved five inspectors and former inspectors of the PJ, and Leonel Marques, Pereira Cristovao, Paulo Marques Bom were acquitted of the crimes for which they were accused, and Antonio Nunes Cardoso was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for forgery of a document, which was suspended for two years. Leonor Cipriano and the missing girl's uncle, Joao Cipriano, were convicted in November 2004 to 20 years and four months and 19 years and two months imprisonment, respectively, for murder and concealment of a corpse. On appeal, the sentence of Leonor Cipriano was reduced to 16 years and eight months.

"I was tortured and beaten by the PJ in Faro", 28 June 2012

"I was tortured and beaten by the PJ in Faro" Correio da Manha Leonor Cipriano, Joana's mother, is back accusing Paulo Pereira Cristovao and his Judicial colleagues Leonor Cipriano yesterday accused, in the Court of Faro, the former PJ inspectors Goncalo Amaral and Paulo Pereira Cristovao, among four others, of having tortured and attacked her on the Faro premises, in 2004, during the investigation into the death of her daughter Joana. By Teixeira Marques June 28, 2012 Leonor, currently serving a sentence of 16 years and eight months in prison, at the Odemira EP, for the death of her daughter, whose body was never found, testified under the defamation suit brought by Amaral against Aragao Correia and Antonio Dores, Leonor's lawyer and a university professor, respectively. "I was tortured by the six PJ officers [they forced me down on top of ashtrays] and assaulted [with punches and kicks to the face and body]." The Public Ministry asked for the acquittal of the defendants and considered as "inadmissible" the facts reported yesterday by Leonor.

Court acquits accused parties of defaming Goncalo Amaral, 17 July 2012

Court acquits accused parties of defaming Goncalo Amaral Jornal de Notícias 17 July 2012 Thanks to Ines for translation This Tuesday, Faro Court acquitted Aragao Correia, Leonor Cipriano's lawyer – the mother of the girl who disappeared from the Algarve in 2004 -, as well as professor Antonio Pedro Dores, of having defamed the ex-PJ inspector Goncalo Amaral. Goncalo Amaral Aragao Correia and the president of the Association Agaist Exclusion for Development (ACED), Antonio Pedro Dores, were accused of having defamed the ex–inspector, who almost eight years ago investigated the disappearance of Joana, Leonor Cipriano's daughter. In the summing up, the judge stated that the necessary conditions had not been met in order to even consider the legal possibility of sentencing Antonio Pedro Dores, president of ACED, who published the "Report On the Torture of Leonor Cipriano Perpetrated by the Policía Judiciaria", the subject of the law suit brought by Goncalo Amaral. As regards Marcos Aragao Correia, the acquittal confirmed his compliance with the civil duty of denouncing acts of torture, an obligation of every citizen, and, on the other hand gave as proven that Leonor Cipriano's lawyer was convinced that Goncalo Amaral was even a participant in the acts of torture against Joana's mother. Upon learning of the acts committed against Leonor Cipriano – whose existence, already the subject of an independent judgement, was not questioned by the court – by means of a conservation with his client, Aragao Correia was convinced of the truthfulness of the version he heard, which, in the Court's understanding, annulled the seriousness of its publication. However, based upon the witness statements heard – including that of Leonor Cipriano - the Court did not admit as proven that Goncalo Amaral had been present at the acts of torture nor that he had coordinated the team which inflicted them. Nevertheless, the judgement alleged that Aragao Correia knew that publicly attributing those acts to someone could constitute material "that was damaging to his honour and dignity", however he did this in the conviction that Leonor had told him the truth. In 2009, Goncalo Amaral was sentenced to a one and a half year suspended sentence for making a false statement in the trial of the ex–PJ inspectors and officers, accused of torturing Joana's mother. The ex–inspector considers that the ACED report was "damaging to his honour and personal and professional considerations", which is why he decided to bring a complaint for defamation against Aragao Correia and the president of the association. The Public Ministry requested the acquittal of both men, alleging that this was not a case of defamation, as all evidence pointed to the existence of torture, in spite of the fact that it has never been proven exactly who was responsible. Heard as a witness during the final sessions of the trial, Leonor described that the inspectors placed a bag over her head, beat her all over her body and hit her with a phone book and a hard cardboard object. Allegedly, the acts of aggression took place after she had been forced to kneel on two glass ashtrays, which according to her, had been supplied by Goncalo Amaral himself. Leonor and the missing girl's uncle, Joao Cipriano, were sentenced in November 2004 to 20 years and four months and to 19 years and two months imprisonment respectively, for the crimes of qualified homicide and hiding of a body. Following an appeal, Leonor Cipriano's sentence was reduced to 16 years and eight months.

Amaral loses and pays costs, 18 July 2012

Amaral loses and pays costs Correio da Manha Faro: Marcos Correia and Antonio Dores accused of defamation The lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia and university professor Antonio Pedro Dores were acquitted yesterday in the Court of Faro, in the crime of defamation action brought by former inspector of the Judicial Police Goncalo Amaral. The defendants were also acquitted of the claim for €3,000. Goncalo Amaral was ordered to pay the court costs By Teixeira Marques 18 July, 2012 Aragao Correia was accused of having published a report in April 2008 on behalf of the Association Against Exclusion for Development (ACED), headed by Antonio Dores, in which Amaral was accused of having "complacently" assisted the tortures with which Leonor was targeted, which were carried out by his subordinates. This was according to the account made by Leonor Cipriano. The court found that Antonio Dores "was not aware of the report" and that Aragao Correia "acted in pursuit of legitimate interests, convinced that the testimony of Leonor Cipriano was true," and on that basis acquitted both defendants.