Duarte Lima, a former Portuguese MP and lawyer, is scheduled to stand trial in Portugal on 5 November over the 2009 homicide of Rosalina Ribeiro, a 74-year-old former companion of wealthy businessman Lúcio Tomé Feteira. The case was transferred from Brazil to Portugal at the end of 2020 because Lima, a Portuguese national, could not be extradited to serve a sentence there; after six years and several postponements, the trial is due to begin.
Ribeiro's body was found on 8 December 2009 on the verge of the RJ-118 road in Saquarema, in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state. She was face down with her head in a puddle. Police noted that she was wearing jewellery and a Swiss Certina watch, which made robbery an unlikely motive. She had been living part of the time in an apartment in Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, and had been due to meet Lima, her Portuguese lawyer, the previous evening.
When friends could not reach her, one of them, Rosemary Spínola, went to the apartment and found it tidy; porters said they had not seen Ribeiro return. CCTV images showed her leaving the building at about 20:00 on 7 December carrying a folder. Her Brazilian lawyer, Normando Marques, formally reported her disappearance on 10 December.
In a fax sent to police on 12 December, Lima said he had landed in Belo Horizonte and had met Ribeiro for about 30 minutes to discuss pending cases in Portugal and Brazil. He said she had arranged the meeting and that he later offered to drive her to Maricá, more than an hour from the Flamengo area, where he left her with an unknown blonde woman named Gisele, aged between 45 and 50, who wore dark-framed glasses and was said to be interested in buying part of the inheritance. Lima invoked professional confidentiality and said he would not give details of their conversation. When Marques earlier reached him by phone, Lima said he was in Hong Kong and confirmed the meeting but said they had not dined together.
Brazilian investigators focused on Lima after the funeral, when they heard the names of Lima and Olímpia Tomé Feteira, the daughter of Ribeiro's former companion, with whom Ribeiro had a long conflict. Olímpia later travelled to Rio de Janeiro in May 2010, brought documents and receipts for payments to a detective agency in Lisbon, and told police she had thought Ribeiro might have faked her death. The investigation found less suspicion attached to her than to Lima.
Police tried to question Lima, and after repeated requests secured a one-hour telephone interview on 22 January 2010. His account that he had picked Ribeiro up on the block where she lived was contradicted by images police had collected, and he became irritated with questions and said he could not remember where he had rented a car. He never responded to further requests, including on whether he had authorised the lifting of professional secrecy.
Because Lima had not used his personal phone number during those days in Brazil, police examined all numbers that called Ribeiro in the hours and days before the killing. They found three numbers — two Portuguese pre-paid cards and one Swiss subscription — that they concluded could only have been used by Lima. The numbers had called people in his circle, including Ribeiro, his friend Marlete Oliveira and the driver who usually chauffeured him in Brazil, and calls were made from places where Lima had been, such as his hotel and the Avenida do Flamengo, minutes before Ribeiro came down to meet him.
Radar records led police to a silver Ford Focus with a Minas Gerais plate, HCF-1967, from the rental company Lima had used. The vehicle was fined at 21:38 on 7 December on the RJ-106 at the entrance to Maricá, heading towards Saquarema, and again at 22:37 at the same point in the opposite direction. Investigators said the timing made it viable that the car had been at the homicide scene, and that if Lima had really gone to Maricá, the return fine would have come only minutes later. The rental company also charged him for a set of floor mats because the car was returned without its original mats, and for fines including one on the eve of the discovery near where the body was found.
Investigators also found that a call was made from Lima's hotel room in Belo Horizonte, before the trip to Rio, to a shop identified as Pantanal Caça, Pesca e Camping, an official representative of the firearms manufacturer Taurus. In October 2011, Brazilian prosecutors charged Lima. Prosecutor Gabriela de Aguillar Lima alleged that he killed Ribeiro because she refused to sign a declaration stating that he had not received any money transferred by her, and described him as capable of killing anyone who did not satisfy his personal wishes and financial interests. A judge in Saquarema ordered him to stand trial.
Brazilian justice later concluded that, to avoid impunity, the case should be sent to Portugal because Lima could never be extradited to serve a sentence as a national. The process was transferred at the end of 2020. Lima denies being the last person to see Ribeiro alive and says he left her with Gisele; his version does not match the early evidence gathered by Brazilian authorities. His trial is now set to start on 5 November.
Sources: Observador.