Two teenage thieves who led police officers to their deaths on a high-speed rail link between Sacavém and Bobadela last week have ducked a second court appearance and are “not complying with their bail conditions”.
Whether this means that Ivandro Borges, 17, and Sacko Cilá, 19, have done a runner from justice remains to be seen.
What is certain is that the youngsters – already “well-known to police” – are to have their final sentences for qualified theft and possession of an illegal weapon read on Thursday.
On Monday, the Public Prosecutor told the Loures court, which released the men last Friday, that it was seeking condemnation as, despite their young age, neither looked likely to “abandon their lives of crime”.
The youngsters’ latest foray shocked the nation last week after two equally young policemen chasing them were mown down by the high-speed Lisbon-Porto Intercidades 25, travelling at 150 mph.
PSP agents Ricardo Santos, 23, and João Rainho, 26, were killed instantly – and the Loures court decision to release Borges and Cilá on the understanding that they would return after the weekend to face the charges against them shocked the country’s law enforcement agencies.
No one was surprised when neither defendant turned up on Monday morning.
Meantime, stories have appeared in the national press highlighting the attitude of the two offenders. Even after they had been arrested and put into cells following the deaths of the policemen, they tried to break out by making holes in the roof.
According to a police spokesman, the men had broken out of another police station in Alcântara, Lisbon, the month before.
Thus why the Loures court decided to release them on bail to reappear on Monday remains a mystery.
