THE PORTUGUESE DREYFUS,Captain BARROS
BASTO (BEN ROSH)
Request to the National Assembly (Parliament)
for rehabilitation
(Submitted on October 31, 2011)
(ENGLISH TRANSLATION by mlopesazevedo)
Honourable First Lady, President of the Assembly
Subject: Request for the re-instatement in the Army of captain Arthur Carlos Barros Basto of the infantry, who was the victim of political-religious segregation in the year 1937.
The present petition is based on the grave violation of human rights and the intolerable violation of the core of fundamental rights materially protected by the constitution of the Portuguese Republic which requires the intervention of the Parliamentary commission for constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees for the following reasons:
1. At a time when anti-Semitism reigned throughout Europe, when millions of human beings were led like cattle to the slaughterhouse, in Portugal, an army officer, Arthur Carlos Barros Basto, was sanctioned for being a Jew and practicing the Jewish religion.
2. As a result, on June 12, 1937, in the disciplinary matter of case no.o. 6 / 1937, the Superior Disciplinary Council of the Army (itself an organ of a regime of personal power) ruled as proven that Arthur Carlos Barros Basto, "performed the operation of circumcision of
several students (of the Israeli Theological Institute of Porto) pursuant to a precept of the Israeli religion he professes", and who, " took attitudes of exaggerated interest and intimacy in students, kissing them and caressing them frequently " (the image of the Sephardic Jews of Tangier, where the victim returned to Judaism) - cf. Document No. 1.
3. In light of these proven facts, the Superior Disciplinary Council of the Army found that Arthur Carlos Barros Basto did not have the, "moral capacity" for the prestige of his function and the decorum of his uniform, thereby punishing him with "separation from service" provided in Article 178 of the Rules of Military Discipline, published by Decree 16:963, on June 15, 1929.
4. The "separation from service" truly constituted for Arthur Carlos Barros Basto (the officer and the Jew) a civil death penalty. The victim was definitively suspended from performing his duties, was definitively impeded from pursuing his career, was definitively banned from wearing his uniform, badges and military insignia, and was forced to forever remain subject to disciplinary action of the Army (in other words, was forced to maintain his civilian life and religious practice forever shaped by military rules absolutely hostile to the most basic Jewish precepts), under penalty of being re-tried, and re-convicted!
5. The facts that the Superior Disciplinary Council of the Army considered 'proven' (and which led to a finding of "moral incapacity" and consequent "separation from service" of the Jewish soldier Arthur Carlos Barros Basto) fall squarely whithin the universally accepted rights of all humans which existed before they were "proclaimed".
6. Moreover, the decision of Superior Disciplinary Council of the Army, in total contrast with Dinim norms that flow from primordial tradition, impedes anyone, no matter who, to understand how the judges reached the degree of certainty that they supposedly achieved in relation to the facts they considered proven. It is a decision without any basis, which does not critically examine the means of proof of evidence that was considered or disregarded, and culminates in the censure of Arthur Carlos Barros Basto for not pursuing the person who denounced him.
7. April 25* may have corrected many injustices of the past, but at least one man was forgotten, Arthur Carlos Barros Basto. The Jew was forgotten.
In 1975 Lea Montero Azancot Barros Basto (widow of Arthur Carlos Barros Basto) presented a request for the reinstatement of her deceased husband in the Army, but she received a negative response from the General Staff of the Armed Forces; who, regarding the decision of 1937, and in such an unbelievable manner, CONFUSED the facts "not proven unanimously", with the facts "proven ", thereby adding to the illegality previously committed, another more scandalous one. - Cf. Documents paragraphs no. 2 and 3.
By these means,
the undersigned requests that the Assembly of the Republic proceed to re-integrate her grandfather, Arthur Carlos Barros Basto into the ranks of the Army, having guiding support
(far beyond Decree-Law No. 173/74 of April 26, applicable to the instant case by reason of "a maiori, ad minus") , from the moral and imprescriptible duty of the state to remedy such a serious violation of international law. "Adonai li vero ira"
Isabel Maria de Barros Teixeira da Silva Ferreira Lopes
(Granddaughter of Charles Arthur Barros Basto)
Rui da Silva Leal (Lawyer)
Rui da Silva Leal (Lawyer)
(*The Carnation revolution, April 25, 1974, translator's note)
(See Portuguese version below, and more articles about the Captain)UPDATES
OPEN HOUSE, DECEMBER 18, 2011, PORTO KADOORIE SYANGOGUE
See award winning author Richard Zimler's plea in The Jewish Chronicle.
http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/60392/portuguese-hero-still-awaiting-justice
