A judge in the Setúbal court has decided to reopen the case of the six students who drowned at Meco beach in December 2013.
Vítor Parente Ribeiro, the lawyer representing the families of those who drowned, said today that the case is to be reopened and the court has responded positively to his request for an opening statement.
This means that the sole survivor of the tragedy João Gouveia, known as Dux, will now be made an arguido (suspect) as there can be no opening statement without a defendant.
The case earlier had been wound up as the prosecutor Almada Moreira da Silva considered that the death of the six young people from Lisbon’s Lusophone University in December, 2013 was accidental.
The reopening of the case is a big step forward for the families who did not accept the first judgement and have always questioned the evidence gathering and presentation of the case.
The case may not go to trial as a result of the judge’s reopening but it will allow the lawyer representing the families to ask those questions that the families feel have not been asked and should have been. Robeiro also will eb able to question the original evidence and to bring in new evidence.
If the judge feels that there is insufficient evidence that a crime has been committed the case will simply be re-filed but today’s news is at least positive for those still grieving and suffering from a lack of closure.
The main plea to the judge by the families’ lawyer was over the contamination of evidence where journalists and police took little care in observing protocols necessary to preserve evidence for later presentation to the court.
The judge has agreed to hear four new witnesses, students of the same University, and has booked November 20th to restart the process and to analyse newly presented telephone and travel records.
