The lawyer representing Rúben Cavaco, the young man from Pont de Sor, Alentejo who was savagely beaten by Iraqi twins with diplomatic immunity, said today that the Iraqi government has not responded to Portugal’s request that immunity be lifted to enable a full investigation to take place.
Lawyer Santana-Maria Leonardo argues that Iraq now has a "moral obligation" to justify its lack of response to the Portuguese government.
"Everything is still as it was. The Iraqi government asked for a period of fifteen days in which to decide what to do. That deadline ran out last Friday and still there are there are no answers," said the sixteen-year-old’s lawyer.
The Iraqi Foreign Minister assured the Portuguese government on September 23rd that his country is not opposed to allowing its Portuguese ambassador’s 17-year-old children to be interviewed formally and a decision would be made in the next two weeks.
Portugal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, said at the end of a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart, Ibrahim al-Jaafari that the Iraqis had no problem with Portugal carrying out an investigation which would involve interviewing the Iraqi twins and that they would decide shortly.
Santana-Maia Leonardo regrets the deadlock, adding that the Iraqi government has a "certain moral obligation" to justify to the Portuguese Government its delay in responding.
Rúben Cavaco and his family said that they "still have hope" that diplomatic immunity will be lifted in the coming days, despite the deadline having passed.
Rúben suffered multiple fractures in the attack and was transferred to the Hospital Santa Maria in Lisbon where he was put into an induced coma.
The two suspects are sons of the Iraqi ambassador to Portugal, Saad Mohammed Ali, and have diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention.
