Suspects in the death of Giovani arrived at the Court of Bragança
The five suspects in the death of the Cape Verdean student arrived at around 3:15 pm (Lisbon time) at the Bragança Court for judicial questioning and application of coercive measures.
The five suspects in the death of the Cape Verdean student arrived at around 3:15 pm (Lisbon time) at the Bragança Court for judicial questioning and application of coercive measures.
The suspects are from Bragança and were arrested on Thursday, having been taken to the premises of the Judiciary Police, in Vila Real, as in Bragança there is no such police.
The PJ transported the detainees back to Bragança in the early afternoon, after a press conference in which they provided clarification on the crime that took place in the early hours of December 21, which killed the Cape Verdean student who ended up dying on December 31, in a hospital in Porto.
The Judiciary Police (PJ) clarified today that the five arrested for their involvement in the death of the 21-year-old Cape Verdean student are indicted for the crime of aggravated homicide and three attempted murders.
“The five arrested are indicted for aggravated homicide. From what can be said, because the investigation is dynamic, at the base of the facts are futile reasons, reasons for a disagreement that occurred inside the recreational space and which later developed outside”, said the national director of the PJ, Luis Neves.
The national leadership of the PJ held an "unprecedented" press conference in Vila Real today to clarify the case of the death of young Cape Verdean Giovani Rodrigues, an issue that went beyond the criminal investigation and caused social alarm.
The Judiciária announced today the arrest of five suspects, aged between 22 and 35, some of them unemployed and all residing in Bragança.
The five men, according to the national director of the PJ, are indicted for one crime of aggravated homicide and three crimes of attempted homicide.
Luís Neves believes that the “tough core that perpetrated the attacks” was arrested and said that the defendants have no criminal record.
The operation was launched between Thursday and tonight and took place in "complete secrecy".
“Contrary to what was published in terms of social networks, this is not a crime between nationals of one country or another, between races. It's not about that at all. It is a crime committed by violent people, in a certain context”, clarified Luís Neves.
The student’s death raised social and insertion issues, so the national director of the PJ was keen to point out that Bragança is a safe city and that the country is a “territory of great brotherhood, in this case, with the people of Cape Verde” .
Cape Verdean student Giovani Rodrigues was found lying alone in a street in Bragança and ended up dying 10 days later in a hospital in Porto.
With the death, in the early hours of December 31, 2019, the case passed to the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Police, which carried out “house searches, inquiries and interrogations of several people suspected of being involved in the events that led to the death of that young man”.
Luís Neves said that, during the “uninterrupted” investigation carried out after the case was communicated to this police, testimonial evidence was collected, as well as the statements of the defendants and “other evidence”, which, for reasons of secrecy, he did not want to reveal. . The Week with Lusa.
