Hit-and-run. Former Cabrita driver receives sentence

The former driver of former Minister of Internal Administration Eduardo Cabrita, accused of the crime of homicide by gross negligence for running over a worker on Motorway 6 (A6), will hear the sentence from the Évora Court this Monday.

The session to read the sentence is scheduled for 11:15 am and will take place approximately a month and a half after the start of the trial.

Marco Pontes, who at the time of the fatal accident involving worker Nuno Santos was the driver of the then Minister of Internal Affairs (MAI), is the only defendant in the case and is charged with homicide by gross negligence.

At the start of the trial, on May 22nd, the former driver said he had no idea how fast the car was going, highlighting that he was surprised by the presence of the pedestrian in the middle of the left lane of the highway, where he was traveling.

The defendant, who stopped being a MAI driver in 2022, then explained to the court that no one gave him instructions about the speed of the car, in which the minister was traveling, after a trip to Portalegre, and that he was in no hurry to get to Lisbon.

In her closing arguments, exactly two weeks ago, the Public Prosecutor's Office considered that the facts contained in the indictment "are proven", and therefore the defendant "should be convicted of negligent homicide ".

Lawyers representing the victim's family and the Association of Self-Mobilized Citizens (ACA-M), who acted as assistants in the case, requested the defendant's conviction, while the defense and an insurance company argued for his acquittal.

At the start of the first trial session, the lawyers representing the victim's family and ACA-M, José Joaquim Barros and Paulo Graça, respectively, expressed regret that Eduardo Cabrita would not be brought to trial in this case.

In parallel, there is a request for civil compensation from the victim's wife, totaling 60 thousand euros.

The accident dates back to June 18, 2021, when the official vehicle in which Eduardo Cabrita was traveling, driven by Marco Pontes, fatally ran over Nuno Santos, 43 years old, a worker at a company that carried out maintenance on the A6, at kilometer 77.6 of the road, in the direction of Estremoz-Évora.

On December 3, 2021, the Public Prosecutor's Office accused Marco Pontes of negligent homicide, and on the same day, the then Minister of Internal Administration resigned from his post.