Former Speaker of Parliament accuses Trovoada of murders

Former president of the São Tomé parliament Delfim Neves filed a criminal complaint this Friday for insult and defamation against former prime minister Patrice Trovoada and accused him of “immediate co-authorship” of four crimes of qualified homicide that occurred in the military barracks in 2022.

According to the lawyer for the former president of parliament, the criminal complaint aims to hold Patrice Trovoada accountable and is based on his statements published on the page of his party Ação Democrática Independente (ADI), last week, in which he accused Delfim Neves of being the mastermind behind the 2022 coup attempt , in which four people died.

“It is strange that citizen Patrice Trovoada is so inconsistent , because the same citizen recognizes the suitability of the institutions that worked on the process, both the Portuguese experts and our Public Prosecutor's Office, which effectively saw that during all the investigations there are not enough elements to charge deputy Delfim Santiago das Neves , but citizen Patrício Trovoada still insists with this narrative”, said lawyer Pedro Sequeira.

Delfim Neves' representative based the complaint on the statements of Patrice Trovoada , who revealed that during the night when the attempted coup d'état was taking place, he was at his residence where a meeting was taking place with senior ADI leaders, including the president of parliament, Celmira Sacramento, who also remained at the location until the early hours of the morning.

“So I think it is time for us to find out whether he was actually there at his residence all this time and why. And furthermore, why was an exceptional measure taken in relation to the President of the Republic taking His Excellency to a safe place and that, in relation to the Prime Minister and the President of the Assembly, the senior leaders of the ADI party, it was understood that the safe place would be the home of the then Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada”, asked the lawyer. “I believe that this is an issue that the Public Prosecutor's Office, in fact, with these new elements, should effectively pursue. Because there are many more people that we should hear” , added Pedro Sequeira, flanked by Delfim Neves.

At issue is the attack on the Morro Barracks, in São Tomé , which took place on the night of 24 to 25 November 2022, after which three of the four civilian attackers - who acted with the complicity of some military personnel - and another man - identified as the orchestrator of the attack and later detained by the military - were subjected to ill-treatment and ended up dying on the same day, in the military facilities.

So far , only the surviving civilian, Bruno Afonso, known as Lucas, has been tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison , which he began serving effectively last week, after the sentence was confirmed by the higher courts.