Stepfather arrested in Brazil for 2016 murder of Rodrigo Lapa

27 September 2017

rodrigoLapa The investigation into the March 2016 murder of Portimão schoolboy Rodrigo Lapa has led police to a favela in Brazil which the local police have been too frightened to enter.

This is the latest excuse for delays in the arrest and trial in Brazil of Joaquim Lara Pinto, Rodrigo’s stepfather who fled Portugal the day after Rodrigo’s body was found on scrubland near his home.

Rodrigo had been brutally murdered but his battered body was not discovered until a week after his disappearance, about 100 metres from his home where Joaquim Lara Pinto lived with Rodrigo’s mother, Célia Barreto.

An operation to detain Joaquim Lara Pinto at the request of the Portuguese Public Prosecutor's Office, finally has being carried out by the Brazilian Police who had been informed that Pinto is the main suspect in the schoolboy’s murder.

The Brazilian end of the operation was carried out in the Tijucal neighborhood of Cuiabá, where Pinto has been living with his parents since he fled Portugal.

The defendant's defence lawyer, Raphael Arantes, already has denied his client had anything to do with Rodrigo’s murder.

Pedro Proença, the lawyer hired by Rodrigo’s natural father, Sérgio Lapa, described the Brazilian neighbourhood where Pinto is holed-up, as "a very complicated neighbourhood in the outskirts of Cuiabá where there are, on average, six homicides per day. Even the police are afraid to go in there."

Why has this taken so long? A letter rogatory was sent by Portugal’s Public Ministry in November 2016 and the Brazilian authorities promised that the letter would be fulfilled before the beginning of 2017.

This 'letter rogatory' requires the Brazilian authorities to detain Joaquim Lara Pinto and present him for a hearing in front of a Brazilian judge. As there is no extradition treaty between Portugal and Brazil, a murder trial can be undertaken in Brazil under other international treaties.

The 'end of 2016' deadline came and went, with the Brazilians blaming judicial holidays. The arrest of Pinto was postponed to January 2017. This deadline also was missed due to "lack of human resources in the Brazilian police force."

The Brazilian police finally have mustered enough fire-power to storm the rough neighbourhood and Pinto has been arrested, questioned and released pending further legal moves.

Pinto now claims to be suffering from post-traumatic stress and says he does not remember anything about the events leading up to his flight from Portugal.