A Briton facing charges of fraud could spend years in a Portuguese jail before getting his day in court

By ROD USHER /LISBON

ust as it is about to host the last World Expo of the millennium, the Portuguese capital Lisbon is attracting the sort of attention it needs like a hole in the roof of its national pavilion. As the pressure to prepare for the grand opening late next month intensifies, the nation is receiving publicity such as the headline in last week's London Observer which read, Welcome to the Portuguese Inquisition. It refers to an Englishman, David Lowry, who has been held in Caxias jail just outside the capital since April 22 last year without any charges being filed against him.

Friends of Lowry say he is an innocent man, a lawyer with a distinguished academic career before becoming an investment broker and adviser on offshore tax shelters. They brandish articles on human rights written by him for legal journals and say he helped U.S. government agencies catch white-collar criminals. Portuguese securities authorities and police take a different view of their 53-year-old Liverpool-born prisoner--they believe they are on the trail of an international fraud that cost investors around the world tens of millions of dollars.

Only a court can decide whether or not they have a case, but meanwhile Lowry finds himself in a position of being treated as good as guilty until he is proven innocent. Under Portuguese law, a person can be held in jail up to a year without charges. Then a maximum of another three years may pass before he is given his day in court. Portuguese lawyers are not allowed to discuss their cases publicly before trial, but Lowry's lawyer, Nuno Godhino de Matos, confirmed last week that Lowry is likely to face three charges by the time the deadline expires April 22: aggravated fraud, forgery and being part of a criminal plan. "I don't believe there is evidence to support any of these charges," he says.

The public prosecutor's office won't discuss Lowry's case and authorities in the prison where he is held in a 15-man cell are unenthusiastic about allowing the press in to visit. The Ministry of Justice, asked why Lowry has been so long in preventive detention, claims "strong indications of a crime punishable by a prison sentence of more than three years" and says a court "considered there was a danger of flight or disturbance of the investigation or continued criminal activity, and that the case was of special complexity."

The case revolves around a Swiss-based investment company called Paramount Securities and its Portuguese affiliate, which Lowry managed until his arrest last year. Paramount allegedly approached potential investors with offers to invest in development companies including D.W Filters, which was producing a water filter for use in developing countries and Global Connect Direct, which was working on a new telecommunications product.

No Portuguese citizens were involved, but investors around the world bought shares in the companies. The Portuguese securities commission, CMVM, says it has received dozens of complaints about Paramount. Among them are five investors from Ireland and one from Denmark. The Dane is Jan Engelund, owner of a computer and telecommunications distribution company. He says he believed he was putting his money in the hands of a Swiss broker "covered by that country's stringent laws." While he won't say how much he invested, he says it has all disappeared.

Engelund, unable to get phone or fax responses from D.W. Filters and Global Connect Direct, says he went to their addresses in Pembroke Pines, Fla., outside Miami. "At the D.W. Filters address I found a building that did not have their name on the directory board and no one I spoke to had ever heard of them," he says. "At the Global Connect address was a postal services shop where there was just a mailbox in Global's name."

While Lowry has accusers such as Engelund, he also has some unusual allies. One of those in Lisbon agitating to have him released before his trial is Craig Heesch, who describes himself as a former Los Angeles policeman who did undercover work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. With him in Lisbon last week was Don Rogers, a former FBI investigator now working for the Utah Department of Commerce. The two say Lowry helped them chase criminals by giving free advice on what was--and wasn't--legal in offshore business dealings. Both are convinced of his honesty. "When you see him in jail you'll just love the guy," said Rogers.

In a letter from jail last month Lowry denies that he would flee if granted bail. "I must stay here to clearly establish my innocence at trial," he writes. But given the speed of the Portuguese justice system, the complexity of the case and the public prosecutor's insistence that he stay behind bars, there seems a good chance David Lowry could still be in preventive detention when the World Expo is finished--and even, perhaps, when the new millennium begins.

--With Reporting by Martha De La Cal /Lisbon