Portuguese Navy chief fined €816 for obstructing court in NRP Mondego secrets trial

The fine and judicial rebuke

On 16 June 2026, the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon sanctioned Admiral Jorge Nobre de Sousa, Chief of the Naval Staff, with a 816‑euro penalty (eight accounting units at 102 euros each). The court found that the Admiral did not comply with a 4 May order to ensure two Navy witnesses appeared to testify. The judge described the Navy’s conduct as “a censurable and unjustified omission of the duty to cooperate with the court” and “an equally intolerable obstruction of the action of justice.”

The procedural behaviour of the Portuguese Navy seriously compromises the regular functioning of this court’s service, intensely affects the image of effectiveness, readiness and rigour that the citizen expects of both institutions (court and Armed Forces) and constitutes an attempt to undermine the duty of compliance with judicial orders and the authority of the courts.

Adjourned hearings

Because witnesses Vasco Pires and Filipa Pinto were not notified in time, neither the 17 June nor the 24 June hearing could go ahead. The court had already postponed a session scheduled for 6 May after one witness was reported to be on mission, and it had then flagged insufficient cooperation from the Navy.

It is verified that these witnesses are, once again, not notified and will not appear in this court.

The cancellation leaves no new date. The trial, which began on 22 April, has now lost its second scheduled hearing without progress.

Defence response and possible detentions

The three sailors’ lawyers, Paulo Graça and António Garcia Pereira, welcomed the fine but insisted the Admiral pay it from his own pocket, not from Navy funds. They also announced they will request that the two missing officers be detained and brought before the court under arrest if non‑attendance persists.

The defence will request that these two officers be detained to give evidence under arrest, since it seems that is the only way we will get them to appear before the judge.

Background of the case

The legal saga originates from March 2023, when 13 crew members (four sergeants and nine enlisted sailors) of the patrol ship NRP Mondego refused to accompany a Russian vessel north of Madeira. They argued the ship had serious structural defects and was unsafe. The then Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Gouveia e Melo, denounced the act as insubordination. Thirteen crew members faced disciplinary penalties and formal charges; three of them are now on trial for allegedly disclosing classified information about the vessel’s poor technical state. The prosecution says the documents contained restricted, reserved and classified data whose release was “imprudent, careless and negligent.”

A pattern of obstruction

Defence lawyers maintain that the Navy has mirrored its behaviour from an earlier case. In that first proceeding, the Navy allegedly delayed expert access to the ship for over a year. When the expert’s report was finally submitted it exposed serious faults on the Mondego, facts the Navy did not want publicised. The current obstruction, they argue, follows the same playbook.