[1] [2][3] After the Revolution, Otelo assumed leadership roles in the first Portuguese Provisional Governments, alongside Vasco Gonçalves and Francisco da Costa Gomes, and as the head of military defense force COPCON.

To solve the impasse, the Portuguese Parliament voted an amnesty for political crimes in 1996 as there was no perspective of juridical solution in "useful time", in adherence to Portugal's statute of limitations.

[4][5][6] Besides this reasoning, the amnesty was promoted by President Mário Soares as a gesture of democratic reconciliation as it erased the political crimes by far left and far right.

[10] The judge in charge claimed that it was certain that the terrorist FP-25 group did the attacks, but not enough admissible proofs indicated the authoring of the crimes for individual convictions.

Named by his theatre-minded parents after Shakespeare's Othello, he completed his secondary education at a state school in Lourenço Marques.

He was posted to Portuguese Guinea in 1970 as a captain, under General António de Spínola, in charge of civilian affairs and the propaganda campaign Hearts and Minds.

[17] Otelo joined the underground Movement of Armed Forces, which carried out a coup d'état in Lisbon on 25 April 1974, in which he played a directing role.

[citation needed] On his attempt to revert President António de Spínola tried to actively intervene appealing to «silent majority» against the political radicalization that was being lived to.

On 28 September, He tried to convene a large popular demonstration in Lisbon that aimed to thwart the movement and show to the loss of influence of moderate forces.

[citation needed] However, MFA soldiers and left-wing parties, led by the PCP, blocked access to Lisbon the previous morning, with barricades at various points.

The atmosphere was close to civil war and at the end of the day Otelo, then commander of COPCON, announced: "The Armed Forces Movement is in complete control of the situation.

In a memo to American President Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger states that "perhaps the most important lesson from the Portuguese weekend's events is the close coordination between MFA and the Communist Party.

Created in July 1974 by President António Spínola to enforce the MFA program, COPCON brought together soldiers from the various branches of the armed forces and was composed of two divisions: one for Information and the other for operations.

[citation needed] This was a troubled period, with major social and political upheavals, clashes between the military and the emergence of various extreme leftist movements.

Among these controversial measures are the blank arrest warrants, without the intervention of the judiciary, which Otelo signed and which were later executed by his subordinates, often during the night without the victims even knowing why they were being detained.

"[33] Most OUT structure and leadership was filled by PRP-BR leaders, a party that shared some of its headquarters, allowing Otelo, who despite his military condition was entitled to be considered a permanent guest, to be present at the meetings, although without any voting rights.

[34][35] With Isabel do Carmo and Carlos Antunes imprisonment and the consequent power vacuum on PRP-BR leadership, a rupture was generated between them, who advocated this was not the time to develop OUT project and the other militants, led by Pedro Goulart, who defended greater violence, namely assassinations, in an attempt to radicalize the armed struggle.

[13] Meanwhile, Otelo was penalized by the Superior Council of Discipline of the Army with the consequent passage to the situation of compulsory reserve, for having an active participation in politics, incompatible with his military status.

It, "...aimed, among others, to create conditions that would allow its members, in the long term and through the armed insurrection, to seize the State and install popular power through the institutionalization of what they called direct and grassroots democracy and subvert the functioning of the institutions of the State enshrined in the Constitution, as this is one of the adequate conditions for the aforementioned armed insurrection...".

The initiative united the most radical factions of the revolutionary far-left, who opposed the establishment of a party-based parliamentary representative system and the restoration of a capitalist economic and social order.

The distinction between the FUP and the FP-25 was similar to the one existing in Northern Ireland between Sinn Féin and the IRA or in Spain between Herri Batasuna and ETA.

[40] On 20 April 1980, five days before the Carnation Revolution anniversary, FP-25 de Abril initiated its activity with dozens of bomb attacks across the country, targeting government, police, and military buildings.

Cândida Almeida, prosecutor in the trial recalls one of the most famous meetings, held in Serra da Estrela where everyone was hooded, Otelo had the number seven.

It's a guideline for violence defining who and how should be carried out the robberies and homicides, Otelo has written with his hand that he was content to know what the profile of the individual to be slaughtered.

[46] Usually, Otelo recorded in his personal notebook everything that was said at the meetings of Political-Military Board Projecto Global (FP-25) identifying all the people present by abbreviations and very enlightening and detailing everything that had been said by each of the authors.

[53] As the period of preventive detention had expired, since the sentence had not yet become final, following European pressure he was released on 17 May 1989, after five years in prison awaiting trial.

It is from here that process 396/91[40] is created, which will bring together the judgment of blood crimes, which took place later and had the sentence handed down on April 6, 2001, and confirmed by the Lisbon Court of Appeal in June 2003.

"The judgment detailed the crimes of blood, also listing all the names of the organization's members and leaders, including Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho:[52] "The court proves everything in the steps that are taken for this or that murderer, even how decisions are made by the terrorist organization, the same is no longer true when it comes to identifying who pulls the trigger, who sets the bomb, who kills, who tries"[57] "They belonged to the same terrorist organization, called «Forças Populares 25 de Abril – FP25»:"... Otelo Nuno Romão Saraiva de Carvalho..."[57] "...all those defendants, and other unidentified individuals, at the end of 1979, beginning of 1980, were grouped together, of their own free will and perfectly conscious, with the shared intention of all to carry out a plan, which was engendered by some and then accepted by the others, all acting in concert to implement this plan, in an articulated and structured way, and continued over time, through insertion in their own structures".

This body was the military political direction (called DPM) responsible for strategic direction and coordination between the political party (FUP), the military organization (PF-25) and all other components...."[57] Even with the possibility of appealing to the Supreme Court of Justice, the Public Prosecutor's Office allowed the appeal period to pass when it had committed to the repentant ones to fight until the last instance for their exemptions from punishment.