For Paulo Lona, the decision “will always”, in general, have to go through “an evaluation judgment” on the part of the magistrates as to whether it is likely or not” that the facts under investigation “could happen again”.
“Of course, this is always a judgment that can be fallible, isn’t it? But it has to be a judgment based on the facts that are in the process”he concluded.
Lusa also tried, unsuccessfully, to hear from the president of the Associação Sindical dos Juízes Portugueses (ASJP) about the case this Tuesday.
On October 20, the Public Prosecutor’s Office charged the firefighter arrested in August in the municipality of Machico with two crimes of aggravated domestic violence, committed against his wife and her 9-year-old son.
According to the prosecution, in the early hours of August 24, 2025, the defendant went to a house in Água de Pena, a parish in the municipality of Machico, in the eastern part of the island, where the victims were living, and “he violently attacked his wife in the presence of his son, who not only repeatedly asked his father to stop the behavior but even put himself between him and his mother to protect her”.
Four days later, the District of Madeira clarified this Tuesday, the defendant asked for the investigation to be opened, admitting going to trial, but for committing a crime of harm to physical integrity.
Previously, on October 4, the offended party sent an ’email’ to the process guaranteeing that the defendant’s behavior was “an isolated act and that the situation has caused suffering to the son” and highlighting that she did not oppose “a possible provisional suspension of the process, under the condition that he undergoes (and completes) treatment for alcoholism in an appropriate institution, under the supervision” of the General Directorate of Reinsertion and Prison Services (DGRSP).
The following day, the alleged aggressor, aged 35, made a request to the same effect, additionally proposing to attend the “DGRSP program for aggressors in the context of domestic violence”.
At the time, this could have been proposed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which, however, chose to file the accusation, with the decision being taken during the investigation by the Funchal criminal investigation judge, after hearing the victim and interrogating the defendant and with the agreement of all parties.
The process will therefore be suspended for one year and, if the defendant does not relapse into committing the crime during this period and completes treatment for alcoholism and attends the program for aggressors, it will be archived, with no possibility of being reopened.
With the investigative decision, the coercive measures applied to the defendant, who had been subject to house arrest with electronic surveillance since October 15th and had already been in pre-trial detention, ceased.
The provisional suspension of the process was announced on Sunday by Diário de Notícias da Madeira and was however criticized by associations combating domestic violence.