The murder of Rodrigo Lapa, allegedly killed by his stepfather in Portimão in 2016, has been handed over to the justice system in Brazil.
A formal request has been made under the Extradition Convention between the Member States of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, given that the accused is a Brazilian national and lives in Brazil.
“The transfer of the case has been accepted by Brazil, so the process will run in that country,” reads a note posted on the District Attorney of Faro’s website.
The Portuguese prosecutor's investigation concluded that it was the stepfather who killed Rodrigo Lapa, 15, in Portimão, in February 2016.
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, was carried out in September 2017 by the Brazilian Police, who had been informed that Pinto was 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.
Comments