Antônio Cotrim / Lusa
Major Vasco Brazão of the Judicial Police (PJ) during his hearing at the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry
Vasco Brazão is asking the Portuguese for financial help to pay for the defense in the Tancos case, which he says is “monstrous, full of mistakes and abusive manipulation of facts”.
Vasco Brazão is 53 years old and is the former spokesperson and chief investigator of the Military Judiciary Police (PJM). It was one of 11 convicted of , which took place in 2017 and whose trial began in 2020.
The former soldier was one of those involved in the case of the theft of weapons of war from the Tancos warehouse and subsequent return to a vacant lot in Chamusca in 2017. He was sentenced again ten days ago to five years in prison with a suspended sentence for the crimes of forgery and favoritism, and is banned from holding public office for two and a half years, says .
Now you are making a crowdfunding (literally translated, a collective fundraiser) to be able to pay for his defense. On the website, he created the objective of receive 50 thousand euros from the Portuguese. At the time of publication of this news, it has already raised 6% — 2,765 euros.
“The investigation resulted in a monstrous accusation, full of mistakes and abusive manipulation of facts“, comments the Army officer in the page description.
Remember that the case is already 6 years old: “It’s too long to get justice, whatever it may be, but there’s one thing it’s not for and that’s the costs associated with defense, the financial consequences of not being promotedthe abrupt interruption of the functions he performed and the enormous psychological and family strain that this whole situation entails”, thus justifies the crowdfunding.
“I do not give up the truth and the resulting innocencebut at this moment, funds have run out and that is why I come, humbly, to appeal to your solidarity and generosity so that I can maintain my defense and that of my sergeant with dignity”, he further writes.
To Expresso, the ex-soldier also said: “As I was not entitled to legal aid from the Army, I decided to create this crowdfunding to finance my defense and that of my sergeant who, like me, fulfilled his mission.”
The Court of Justice of Santarém maintained on November 10th the convictions of 11 of the 23 defendantswith an effective prison sentence for the material perpetrators of the assault.
