The 88 defendants in the Hells Angels process are now being tried in Camarate (Loures).
According to one of the lawyers linked to the case, Judge Carlos Alexandre, from the Central Court of Criminal Instruction (TCIC), decided to pronounce all the defendants "in the exact terms of the indictment", and placed more than 50 under house arrest.
Carlos Alexandre's pronouncement order has more than a thousand pages and in one of the passages of the order, to which Lusa had access, the TCIC judge concludes that, given the analyzed evidence, "this set of elements thus grouped is not a simple recreational motorbike club but a group of people who organize themselves (...) in paramilitary ways or similar to the mode of action of a militia".
The judge also considers that all elements that make up the 'biker' group are "in absolute consonance, hierarchical and imbued with obedience to the statutes (of the biker club) and the obligations arising from it", regardless of "any side where they are located ".
This last consideration by the judge is related to the fact that one of the defendants alleges that he was in Luxembourg at the time of the criminal acts (aggression) that occurred in the Prior Velho area, in Lisbon.
In the allegations of the preliminary debate, which took place in July, the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) asked for the trial of all the defendants, arguing that they all committed the crimes listed in the indictment, which included telephone tapping, documents seized from the group as evidence and the testimony of witnesses and defendants.
At the time, the MP gave as proven, among other facts, the attack perpetrated by the defendants and members of the Hells Angels group in the restaurant Mesa do Prior, in Prior Velho, as well as the persecution carried out by them against Mário Machado, leader of the extreme right wing movement who belonged to a rival 'biker' group.
The prosecutor then gave as proven the other crimes included in the indictment, including extortion and possession of prohibited weapons.
The prosecution of the MP considered that those members of the 'biker' group Hells Angels devised a plan to annihilate a rival group, in March 2018, using physical force and various weapons to cause them serious injuries, "if necessary to death ”.
In some areas Portugal is really advanced in other basic elements this country is behind many 3rd world countries, in this case its well know that bikie groups are criminals, its proven by the number of them in jails world wide but in this country, they go on like nothing has happened, see how other countries outlaw these gangs compared to Portugal.
By John Martindale from Algarve on 28 Sep 2021, 12:02
Actually, outlaw motorcycle gangs are considered a national threat and a national policing priority in 17 EU Member States and six Europol partner states. And of course they are legal - and problematic - in the US and elsewhere. So it's hard to see how Portugal is lagging in this respect.
By BG Davis from USA on 30 Sep 2021, 02:10