But that’s the story of Juan and Maria, which I’ve never seen. She was not at the hearing. There were only two sessions: the first, which for me was the result of randomness, and the reading of the sentence.
I sat down while in the seat reserved for the defendants was a tired and expressionless man. It was Juan. At age 39 – as I later discovered – he was wearing a sweater with a hood. It was green, but not in an obvious way. It was faded from occasional use or poor quality, but it was what he used to introduce himself to the panel of three judges, who had not yet arrived.
In front of him, looking equally tired, sitting at a table, was the unofficial defense lawyer assigned to him.
Meanwhile, a man in a dark suit enters the room. Smiling, looking eager, he greets everyone in the room, including the three PSP agents. He was the interpreter, because Juan doesn’t speak Portuguese.
Juan listens carefully to the man’s advice, who gestures a lot. The defendant nods, with a half smile. The lawyer, next door, gives some guidance, but less than the interpreter.
Suddenly, the judges enter. Everyone stands up when instructed otherwise.
The judge asks Juan for personal details, such as his profession – he worked in construction -, household and other mundane things.
“Do you want to talk? You have the right to remain silent”, warns the judge.
“You can remain silent”, repeats the interpreter. Juan wants to stay silent and say it. But it doesn’t stay. He ended up answering everything, and there was no need to insist much.
The indictment indicates that Juan transported packages (it does not say how many or how heavy) containing cocaine from Brazil to Lisbon, coming from Peru.
“Why did you do that”, asks the judge. “Out of necessity”, says Juan, already supported by the interpreter. The reasons for the act multiply, from helping his mother, who is elderly, to paying the rent for his apartment in Barcelona.
Juan refuses to say how much he would earn for transporting the drugs. But the judge insists: “And if you received R$20, would you accept it?”
Faced with the provocation, Juan admits that he would have won 10 thousand euros, if everything had gone well.
In the midst of all this, the defense lawyer makes an allegation: “those who have never made a mistake should cast the first stone.”
The defendant ends up admitting regret. In his pocket, when he was captured, he only had R$35, however, he explains that R$1,000 had been given to transport him. The rest will have been spent on travel. We don’t know.
Juan had a cell phone with him at the time of the capture, which, he revealed to the judge, had been used to contact the people who enticed him to carry out the transport.
“Do you want to add anything else”, asks the judge.
Juan admits he made a mistake and assures him that he doesn’t want this in life.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office argues that Juan showed no regret.
The sentence was read a week later. We already know it. Juan, at the request of the public lawyer, will serve his sentence in Barcelona, to be close to his family. In addition, there is an additional penalty, which prevents you from entering Portugal for six years.
I discovered that, during the sessions with the lawyer, Juan never hinted that he would admit guilt. It surprised everyone.
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