Minister breaks silence on prison break
She broke her silence as more details emerge about the escape of five inmates, considered dangerous, from a high-security prison north of Lisbon.
Four days after five inmates escaped from a high-security Portuguese prison, the Minister of Justice (the member of Government responsible for the prison system), finally spoke about the case.
“I believe that now is the right time to speak,” said Minister Rita Alarcão Júdice, explaining that “speaking for the sake of speaking” is not her “style” and that she wanted to “give space to the investigation”.
For the Minister, this escape from the Vale de Judeus prison “is of a serious nature” that cannot be “excused” in the name of “the safety of the population, confidence in the functioning of prisons, the rule of law and the country's reputation”.
She said that the Government drew three essential conclusions from this escape:
The first is that there has been “a successive chain of serious, gross, unacceptable errors and mistakes,” which she does not want to see repeated.
The second conclusion is that the escape was orchestrated: “It wasn’t the result of taking advantage of a distraction,” she explained, “It was a plan prepared with time, with method and with the help of third parties.”
Finally, the Minister said that restoring confidence in the prison system will require “accountability at various levels and reinforced supervision of the prison system”.
Public officials resign
She also confirmed that the Director-General (DG) of Reintegration and Prison Services, as well as the deputy DG in charge of prisons, presented their resignations on Tuesday afternoon - which she had accepted (the press had contradicting reports about whether they resigned or were forced to resign by the Government).
The leadership of the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services will now be taken over by Isabel Leitão - who was previously deputy DG.
An urgent audit of the security systems “of all 49 prisons in the country” has also been ordered. It will be carried out by the General Inspectorate of Justice Services and the results will be presented by the end of the year.
In addition, there will also be a “management audit” of the prison system, to assess”‘the organisation and allocation of resources” in all prisons. This will be a “longer” investigation, to help the government decide on “changes that are necessary,” explained Minister Rita Alarcão Júdice.
She said that she will not hesitate to start “disciplinary or criminal proceedings” if they prove necessary in the wake of this escape.
More details
The Minister said that, according to the audit report, the escape “took six minutes” and resources were used - “two ladders” - that didn’t exist inside the prison.
Between the start of the escape and the communication to the competent criminal police (in this case, the GNR) it took 83 minutes.
Based on her statements, the following chronology of events can be established:
at 9.55am: the escape operation began, “with the intrusion of three individuals” into the external perimeter of the prison;
at 9.57am: the escape of the inmates begins;
10.01 a.m.: the last escaped inmate breaks through the outer fence of the prison;
11.00 a.m.: the escape is detected by two guards;
between 11.04 and 11.08: the alert is given to the entire corporation;
11.10 a.m.: the warden of the Vale de Judeus jail was informed;
at 11.18 a.m.: the GNR was alerted;
at 11.19am: the DG for Reintegration and Prison Services was informed;
12.00 p.m.: the prison director confirms the identity of the five prisoners to the DG for Reintegration and Prison Services;
12.30 p.m.: the central services and the Minister are informed of the escape.
Later, in an interview with RTP, she said that the escape of the prisoners from Vale de Judeus prison is “a situation of organised crime” and a “highly complex process”, which is why “all means are at the disposal of the investigation”.
She also said the European arrest warrants for the five prisoners who escaped on Saturday from the Vale de Judeus prison in Alcoentre have already been issued.
Earlier, the lawyer for the National Prison Guard Union, Pedro Proença, revealed on that “a shelter” had been found next to the wall of the prison, which used by the accomplices.
At the scene, “cans of soft drinks were found”, which have already been collected by the Judicial Police (PJ) to analyse whether there is “possible biological evidence’”
The security cameras, meanwhile, show that the accomplices made a “tactical approach” to the prison wall, which is “typical of special operations, which means that these individuals obviously have special military training”.
“They are probably members of special units of the military or have been,” he explained.
Background
On Saturday, five inmates escaped from the Vale do Judeus prison, about 40 miles (65km) north of Lisbon, at about 10am local time.
According to the Portuguese prison service, the men – aged between 33 and 61 – had “external help through the launch of a ladder, which allowed the inmates to scale the wall and access the outside”.
Police officers had been deployed to recapture the escapees, it added.
The five men are:
Fernando Ribeiro Ferreira, 61, sentenced to 25 years for drug trafficking, criminal association, theft, robbery and kidnapping;
Rodolf José Lohrmann, 59, sentenced to 18 years and 10 months for criminal association, theft, robbery, false declarations and money laundering. Lohrmann is suspected of the murders of at least two children of prominent politicians in his native Argentina.
Mark Cameron Roscaleer, 39, sentenced to 9 years for kidnapping and robbery.
Shergili Farjiani, 40, sentenced to 7 years for the crimes of theft, violence after the theft and forgery of documents,
Fábio Fernandes Santos Loureiro, 33, sentenced to 25 years for the crimes of trafficking in minor quantities, criminal association, extortion, money laundering, insult, aggravated theft, resisting and coercing an official and driving without a legal licence.
Vale de Judeus is a high-security prison with capacity for 560 inmates, according to its website.