EX-MOUNTIE AWAITS FATE IN DRUG CORRUPTION TRIAL

Portuguese Judges Give Verdict Today Against Accused Who Fled From Canada

VILA FRANCA DE XIRA, Portugal - A seven-year saga of trust and
betrayal, drugs and greed will come to an end in court here today.

Former Mountie Jorge Leite, accused of selling information to
Colombian drug lords, will learn from the three judges who tried him
for corruption whether they believed his tangled story - that he is a
scapegoat for the RCMP.

The 48-year-old Leite, who fled to Portugal in 1991 as the Mounties
were closing in, admitted during a three-day trial that, yes, he was
on the take from Colombian drug queen Ines Barbosa.

Yes, he did sell Barbosa secret RCMP information while working as a
drug squad officer in Montreal in 1991. And yes, he accepted a $30,000
van from her.

But it was all part of his job to infiltrate the drug cartel. His
boss, Inspector Claude Savoie, ordered him to do it. And he turned
over all the bribe money to him.

Savoie killed himself in December, 1992.

Even if the judges find Leite guilty of corruption, few here believe
he will do any more time then the one month he's already served while
awaiting trial. The maximum sentence is 14 years.

Certainly, that's the opinion of Carlos Leite, who told reporters
after the trial concluded last week that his brother was set up by the
RCMP, intent on covering up corruption that existed higher up in the
Montreal drug squad at the time.

``He's going to walk, and when he does, he's going to talk,'' the
brother told a group of Canadian reporters covering the trial. ``They
won't like what he's got to say.

``The RCMP was out to get my brother. He had no choice but to flee the
country. When they couldn't get him they tried to get me, and I had to
take off myself,'' he said, adding that statements attributed to him
that implicated his brother with the Colombians were complete
fabrications.

The Mounties, he said, were so obsessed with Barbosa they would stop
at nothing. ``They wanted me to wear a wire and I refused,'' he said,
adding that he worked as Barbosa's driver for a time.

In his closing statements, prosecutor Joao Parracho said he would not
oppose a suspended sentence.

The prosecutor pointed out that the case was old, and happened in a
foreign country. He also told the court that he doubted Leite had
acted alone in selling out the RCMP.

The RCMP has admitted Savoie, Leite's police boss, was indeed corrupt.
According to their investigation, he took payoffs totalling more than
$200,000.

RCMP Inspector Yves Roussel, who spent seven years trying to get Leite
into a courtroom, looked uncomfortable as he testified that Savoie was
on the take from another gang - the West End Gang in Montreal - and
not the Barbosa group.

``It is an incredible coincidence that two officers on the same squad
were found to be corrupt,'' Roussel testified.

Roussel also testified that while Leite admitted to taking only
$45,000, his investigation showed it was more like $200,000. And that
doesn't include his $400,000 villa and condo in the Algarve.

The Mounties knew they were taking a chance when they brought their
case here. But they say they had no other choice because Portugal does
not extradite its nationals.

The Mounties believe local police knew Leite's whereabouts for a long
time but did not pick him up until The Star began investigating. And
they are troubled by the treatment he has received.

Unlike most accused drug offenders in this country, Leite was not
handcuffed when he was escorted in and out of court, and was treated
almost like a celebrity by some of his police guards.

They also went to great lengths to foil journalists trying to
photograph Leite, even using decoy vans.

``We're flying in the dark here. We don't know what to expect,''
Roussel confessed at the outset of the trial.

Portuguese justice is quite different from the Canadian
system.

An accused who gives up the right to remain silent is grilled by the
three judges, but does not swear to anything.

And witnesses are not required to swear an oath; they merely promise
to tell the truth.

The proceedings are not taped or transcribed in any form. Only the
judgment is in written form.

And in a system where the accused is presumed guilty unless proved
innocent, any doubts the prosecutor may have, such as what role Savoie
played in this saga, must be weighed in favour of the accused.