Petition about criminal complaint against Chega deputies approaches 90 thousand signatures
The public petition to sign the criminal complaint drawn up against the president of Chega, André Ventura, the parliamentary leader, Pedro Pinto, and a party advisor, Ricardo Reis, already has almost 90 thousand signatures, after their respective statements about the death of Odair Moniz, victim of shooting by a PSP agent last Monday.
O “News Diary”the first newspaper to report the criminal complaint, says it was contacted by several citizens who wanted to join the project.
From Friday afternoon onwards, a petition was opened to the public to sign the initiative. Since then, the number of signatures has continued to increase and every assessment made ends up becoming outdated shortly afterwards.
Among the signatories, in addition to the former Minister of Justice Francisca Van Dunem, are the former Minister of Education, João Costa, Sérgio Godinho, the artist Capicua, the commentator and political analyst Daniel Oliveira, Miguel Sousa Tavares, João Maria Jonet, Ana Gomes, the former Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality Rosa Monteiro, Miguel Prata Roque, from the Socialist Party, Romualda Fernandes, also from the PS, Pedro Marques Lopes, Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles, the writer José Eduardo Agualusa, the former deputy from Livre Joacine Katar Moreira, Leonor Rosas, from Bloco de Esquerda, Maria Castello Branco and Adriana Cardoso (who, at Expresso, subscribe to the podcast “Lei da Paridade”), the activist Mamadou Ba, the former director of the magazine “Visão” and “CNN” commentator Mafalda Anjos, Nuno Markl, Pilar del Rio, socialist Porfírio Silva, Rita Ferro Rodrigues, artist Vhils, Vitorino, political scientist and researcher Vicente Valentim and architect Tiago Mota Saraiva.
At issue are the statements considered by these subscribers as instigating the commission of a crime, and, therefore, criminal offenses, following the shooting death by the police of Odair Moniz, in the Cova da Moura neighborhood.
These are the words that Pedro Pinto said, in a debate on RTP3, on Wednesday: “Maybe, if [os agentes] If they shot more and killed people, the country would be more in order.” André Ventura also made some comments about the case, which will now be the subject of a criminal complaint, including: “We shouldn’t make this man a defendant, we should be grateful for the work this police officer did. We should decorate him (…)” On the social network “X”, Ventura continued with the arguments: “In a normal country everyone would think the same, but it seems that criminals are protected more than police officers.” And he returned to them, in another publication: “Thank you, thank you. That was the word we should be giving to the police officer who shot another criminal in Cova da Moura.” Accusing Odair Moniz of “in all probability committing crimes”, the leader of the radical right party understood that the police officer accused of shooting “it went well”.
The crimes invoked by the subscribers in the criminal complaint are the “apology of a crime”, punishable by article 298. of the Penal Code, and “incitement to commit a crime” and “public instigation of a crime” (article 297). Against Pedro Pinto and André Ventura, according to what was signed, “incitement to collective disobedience”, under article 330, will still fall. of the Penal Code, as a “division” between police forces and/or other sovereign bodies would have been promoted. For allegedly “promoting or founding a group, organization or association whose purpose or activity is directed at the commission of one or more crimes”, in the text, Pedro Pinto and André Ventura are also cited for the possible crime of criminal association (by article 299 of the Code Criminal).
The statements made led the Public Ministry to open a case, which “runs terms in the Lisbon Regional Department of Investigation and Criminal Action”.
Miguel Prata Roque, jurist, former Secretary of State of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of António Costa and one of the promoters of the criminal complaint, told the Lusa agency that the complaint will be delivered to the Attorney General’s Office at the beginning of next week, the date being dependent on the availability of the institution.
