Aroca Mayor Margarida Belén was sentenced this Thursday morning by a Feira court to a suspended prison sentence of one year and three months for aggravated forgery. The suspended sentence is valid for two years.
In the same process, construction entrepreneur Carlos Piño was given the same sentence. Arthur Neves, the former mayor of Arouca and former secretary of state for civil protection, was cleared of the crimes he was charged with.
The paving work between Chao de Ave and Quintela was at stake during the 2017 municipal elections. According to the Ministry of Public Administration, the work was carried out without the support of any legal procedure in accordance with public procurement rules.
The defendants were held accountable for malfeasance and document forgery with aggravating circumstances. However, the court considered that the crime of evading responsibility did not take place for any of the defendants.
The construction company Carlos Pinho was also sentenced to pay a fine of 22,500 euros. The company would still have to correct, in terms of the IRC, €2,321 in respect of the profits generated from the said work.
Author: Paulo Jorge Duarte
Source: CM Jornal
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