Miguel Alves’ trial postponed to January due to justice workers’ strike

The trial of former Caminha mayor Miguel Alves and businesswoman Manuela Couto, accused of malfeasance, has been postponed until January, with the deadline for lawyers to comment on the new dates still pending, it was announced on Wednesday.

Speaking to Lusa, a judicial source from the Viana do Castelo court said that the dates of the new hearings in January will be published on the Citius portal only after the completion of formalities.

This is the third postponement of the trial of Miguel Alves and Manuela Couto (now Manuela Souza), which was supposed to start last Thursday with hearings scheduled until October 4, but was postponed due to a strike by judicial workers.

In June, the trial of the former mayor of Caminha, Miguel Alves, had already been postponed at the request of the accused, since she was being tried in another case, namely Operation Eter, which is taking place in the São João Novo court in Porto. .

The trial, originally scheduled to start on April 13, was eventually postponed to June due to delays in the proceedings, including those caused by a strike by justice workers.

In a case due to begin in January at the Viana do Castelo court, the Ministry of State (MP) is accusing former socialist mayor Miguel Alves, who resigned as assistant secretary of state to the prime minister after learning of the allegations – in violation of public procurement rules when he agreed with Manuela Couto to provide communications consulting services to the municipality “without any public procurement procedure.”

An indictment from the Regional Department of Investigation and Criminal Affairs of Porto (DIAP), to which Lusa had access, states that the case arose from “an anonymous complaint filed on the DCIAP portal.” [Departamento Central de Investigação e Ação Penal]July 3, 2019, noting that then-president Caminha Chamber “signed several contracts with MIT – Make It Happen, Branding Comunicacional, Lda., a company owned by entrepreneur Manuela Couto” in 2015 and 2016. .

Those accused of being co-authors are charged with malfeasance by a political official.

Manuela Couta is on trial in the “Operation Eter” case, related to illegal contracts concluded by the Tourism Authority of Porto and the North of Portugal (TPNP), in which there are 29 defendants and about 150 economic crimes.