The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) ordered the shelving of the investigation related to alleged harassment situations at the Center for Social Studies (CES) at the University of Coimbra, after analyzing the report sent by the independent commission and the letter from the women’s collective.
The inquiry originated from the final report of the Independent Commission for the Clarification of Harassment Situations at CES, which was publicly presented in March 2024, as well as a letter in which a collective of 13 women urged Portuguese judicial authorities to urgently investigate the alleged criminal conduct mentioned in the report.
The report released at the time confirmed the existence of patterns of conduct of abuse of power and harassment, by people in higher hierarchical positions, without specifying names, with 14 people being reported to the independent commission, by 32 complainants, in a total of 78 complaints.
In the archiving order to which the Lusa agency had access, the MP explains that conduct described in the report would be likely to be part of the practice of crimes against sexual freedom, which depend on the presentation of a complaint by the victims, however, “from the analysis of the elements gathered and the research carried out”, it was found that “none of the offended parties filed a complaint due to such factuality”, within six months.
“In the absence of a complaint from the offended parties, with the MP lacking legitimacy to carry out criminal action (…), I order the archiving of the case in this regard”, he explains.
Contacted by Lusa, Boaventura de Sousa Santos highlighted that this filing is confirmation of what he has always stated: that “there were never any complaints” against him“in the only place they should have been done: in the courts”.
“They never wanted to discuss the facts they accused me of in the proper place, which has rules, and which is the courts. The intention was never to have reparation or punishment, the intention of the complainants was only one: using the media, to defame and cancel me, which they achieved.”he maintained.
Asked about the slowness of the analysis of the Independent Commission’s final report and the reports sent by the women’s collective, the researcher admitted that he would have liked “this decision to have been made sooner”.
“As I did not have access to the entire process, I cannot say whether the MP’s conclusion was delayed or not. What I can say is that this decision would already be known to the CES and, eventually, to the complainants, since December 2024, and the fact that no one has ever made reference to it demonstrates that there was an attempt to keep it from being public knowledge”, he argued.
Lusa also spoke to lawyer Lara Roque Figueiredo, representative of some of the women who are part of the group of complainants, who confirmed that she was aware of this order from the MP.
“The knowledge we have is that, effectively, regarding these facts and these crimes specifically, and because they depend on a complaint, it was archived. However, there are facts that could allegedly constitute other types of crimes, these public ones, and which the Public Prosecutor’s Office would continue to investigate”reported.
Three researchers who worked at CES at the University of Coimbra reported situations of harassment in a chapter of the book entitled “Sexual misconduct in the Academy – For an Ethics of Care at the University”, which led researchers Boaventura de Sousa Santos and Bruno Sena Martins to end up suspended from all positions they held at CES, in April 2023.
The CES ended up creating, a few months later, an independent commission to investigate the allegations, having released its report almost a year later.
In September 2024, Boaventura de Sousa Santos filed civil lawsuits for personal protection at the Coimbra Court, against the 13 researchers and former students of CES at UC, but ended up giving up, opting for the criminal case for defamation that was archived.
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