The defence of the three Navy soldiers accused of violating state secrecy asked today, on the first day of the trial, for the removal of the military judge from the judges’ panel, but the request was denied.
The panel responsible for the trial of the three Navy soldiers who are accused of disclosing confidential material after refusing, with 10 other soldiers, to board the Ship of the Portuguese Republic (NRP) Mondego, in March 2023, comprises three judges, one of whom is João Passos Ramos, from the Navy.
This case is a military crime, that of violation of state secrets, which can be tried in an ordinary court and by an ordinary or military judge.
In view of the composition of the panel, lawyers Paulo Graça and António Garcia Pereira advanced, at the beginning of the session, with a request, arguing that the continuity of Judge João Passos Ramos constitutes a nullity.
At issue is the fact that Judge João Passos Ramos belongs to the Navy, with the rank of captain, has no legal training or degree, and arrived at the court in naval uniform. The presence of the military judge, argued the defence of the three soldiers, “represents a factor of contamination of independence.”
The panel of judges denied the defence’s request, with the presiding judge of the panel, Tânia Gomes, stressing that the law provides for the existence of military courts and that the court does not submit to any order from any entity, and rejects and regrets that, in the statement, it was said that this is a Navy process.
For the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the military publicly disclosed confidential information about the state of the ship, knowing the confidential nature of the data.
The three defendants “knew that the documents they prepared contained restricted, reserved and classified information about the non-compliance, location, mission and operational limitations of NRP Mondego which, due to its nature and content, could not be disclosed,” reads the indictment.
The prosecution classifies the actions of the three soldiers as “ill-considered, careless, and omissive.”
The episode in which the 13 soldiers refused to carry out a mission to accompany a Russian ship, in the archipelago of Madeira, gave rise to two cases: one involving three soldiers for violation of state secrets, whose trial began today, and another involving the 13 soldiers for insubordination, which is still in the investigation phase.
Regarding the process under investigation, the Public Prosecutor’s Office argued that the NRP Mondego “had the capacity to go to sea, although with some degraded conditions, including cracks in the deck, an inoperable engine, and a broken engine cooling pump.”
For the Public Prosecutor’s Office, if there were “impossible conditions to carry out the mission, the commander could decide to return to port.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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