Accused lawyer and former MP, Duarte Lima, has been grilled twice this week.
On Tuesday he was questioned further about his role in the murder in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil of Rosalina Ribeiro over a €5 million inheritance.
The day before Lima was in the dock accused of aggravated fraud and money laundering involving BPN bank where he allegedly benefitted from various highly suspect loans amounting to more than €40 million which allowed him to acquire building land in Oeiras to the west of Lisbon.
It is not only Lima that is accused of dodgy dealing as his son, Pedro Lima, Vítor Raposo and Francisco Canas also are accused, as are lawyers João Almeida e Paiva and Miguel Almeida e Paiva.
Lima’s hearing on Tuesday concerned Rosalina Ribeiro's murder of which he is accused in Brazil. The presiding judge at the Tribunal de Instrução Criminal in Lisbon, Claudia Pina, wanted Duarte Lima to clarify whether the €5 million he received, allegedly as fees from his former client, was ever declared to Finanças.
Ribeiro was murdered on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro in December 2009 where she died after being hit with two shots after allegedly refusing to sign a document diverting millions to Lima from millionaire Lúcio Thomé Feteira.
During the first interrogation on May 16th through questions put in writing to Duarte by the Brazilian authorities, he failed to clarify whether he had declared the money to Portuguese tax authorities.
The prosecution claims that this money was the reason for Ribeiro’s murder.
Duarte Lima is well known and well connected in Portugal as he is a former MP, a lawyer and was vice president of the National Policy Committee of the PSD between 1989 and 1991, chairing its parliamentary group between 1991 and 1994.
Interpol
The Attorney General's Office in Portugal received a request from Brazil for assistance in investigating the murder of Rosalina Ribeiro, Lima's former client.
Ribeiro was killed with two shots in December 2009 after allegedly refusing to sign a document diverting millions to Lima from deceased millionaire Lúcio Thomé Feteira's account.
Lima is on Interopol's Wanted list; is is obvious where Lima is, yet he remains at liberty.
Why the Brazilian authorities have not insisted on Lima's deportation to face murder charges remains a mystery and the fact that there is no extradition treaty between Brazil and Portugal itself if of enduring suspicon.
'Wanted by the judicial authorities of Brazil for prosecution / to serve a sentence'
| Present family name: | LIMA |
| Forename: | DOMINGOS DUARTE |
| Sex: | Male |
| Date of birth: | 20/11/1955 (59 years old) |
| Place of birth: | Portugal |
| Language spoken: | Portuguese |
| Nationality: | Portugal |
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