In the judgment reading session, held this afternoon, the president of the collective of judges sentenced the seven defendants to prison sentences that, in legal terms, vary between one year and three months, and six years.

However, only the defendant who came to trial pronounced for more crimes (10), Rúben Candeias, was sentenced to effective imprisonment, to a legal maximum of six years.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, Rúben Candeias' lawyer, António Alves, said that he would analyse the judgment of the collective of judges, before deciding whether to appeal the decision, but considered it, under initial analysis, excessive.

“Only after reading it can we assess whether we have grounds to appeal and in what manner we are going to do so”, he said, stressing that “any effective prison sentence is excessive”.

According to António Alves, Rúben Candeias was convicted of a total of seven crimes, one of them of aggravated kidnapping, five of offenses to qualified physical integrity, and one of abuse of power, “he was acquitted of three crimes of abuse of power”.