The Iraqis left it until the last minute before responding to official questions from the Portuguese Foreign Affairs Minister on whether the Iraqi ambassador's twin boys will have their diplomatic immunity lifted so that a full investigation can take place into the brutal assault on Rúben Cavaco in Ponte de Sor, last August.
Instead of making a statement, the Iraqi’s have delayed matters further by asking a series of legal questions concerning the case. This is a tactic that Portugal's Foreign Affairs Minister, Augusto Santos Silva, has swallowed, as he has given the Iraqis a further week to lift immunity, or say why not.
The 18-year-old twin brothers, Haider and Ridha Ali, already have given voluntary statements as to their involvement in the beating but the Portuguese prosecutor want them to become official suspects so the twins can be formally interviewed and charged, possibly with attempted murder.
Augusto Santos Silva said today that the latest deadline was really, really the last one, and promptly left on a trip to India. This is the same minister that on Ocober 14th said that "all reasonable deadlines have already been passed" and that an answer "by next week is already a sufficiently friendly gesture from the Portuguese authorities."
Meanwhile, Rúben Cavaco’s health is not good. Having been released from a Lisbon hospital after undergoing reconstructive surgery to his serious head injuries received during the savage attack, the youth has not been recovering as well as at first thought and is causing his family and medical team a high degree of concern.
The Iraqis could have asked their ‘legal questions’ weeks ago and the added pressure brought to bear on the victim is not helping his recovery.
Santos Silva is being strung along but next week, should they do nothing, the Iraqis face the humiliation of having their ambassador and his family declared ‘persona non grata’ to enable the boys to face trial. Before this point, Haider and Ridha Ali are at will to travel and may be nowhere to be found on Portuguese soil should they lose the convenient cloak of diplomatic immunity.
Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, today said that he agreed with the Foreign Affairs Minister’s stance as "the last Iraqi position raised a series of legal issues," while admitting that he did not have a clue what these were but that they were receiving the attentions of Portuguese "diplomatic and investigative authorities."
