Prosecutors acknowledged Tuesday in an eye-opening debate in the anti-smoking collar case that the evidence in the case was insufficient to support charges against former Civil Protection Minister José Artur Neves.
“I think there is nothing in the record that speaks against the defendant José Neves,” prosecutor David Aguilar said at a debate at the Central Criminal Court in Lisbon, in a trial that led to the dismissal of the then-secretary. Civil protection states.
Leaving the court for the lunch break, the ruler’s former lawyer, António Castanheira Neves, considered that the prosecutor’s office (MP) “very sharply softened the charge and ultimately admitted that the charge is deeply unjustified in many chapters.” , which he said was “not surprising.”
Asked if he understood that the deputy was leaving the process weakened, admitting that the accusation was not sufficiently substantiated, Castanheira Neves replied that this was “even clearer evidence that the deputy is rushing too often and with great intensity.”
“The accusation is unfounded, devoid of factual and legal force, and, moreover, it is based on a reality that I had the opportunity to highlight and which intuitively makes it clear its complete and absolute nullity,” the lawyer told reporters, emphasizing that in his statements in the courtroom he has already done that the “absolutely essential prerogatives” of the defendants’ defense rights were ignored.
In particular, he referred to the right to examine materials in order to make statements as part of the investigation.
“There is obvious haste on the part of the deputy. The former Secretary of State for Civil Protection was called to appear on the eve of the day the long and extensive indictment was announced. He said he intended to make statements as long as he was given access to the materials, a legally guaranteed right. the day he was charged,” he said.
According to Castanheira Neves, this is an “absolutely insurmountable nonsense” that should lead to the criminal investigation judge ordering the case back to the investigative stage, and the lawyer to defend himself by arguing that the alternative should be an order not to prosecute against the accused. defendants.
Despite the weakness of the prosecution, admitted by the deputy, the prosecutor “ultimately stated that [os arguidos] should be issued without specifying exactly why and on what basis,” Castanheira Neves said, adding that the investigator must now decide whether there will be a trial and which defendants will appear in court.
If José Arthur Neves’s non-statement is confirmed, the lawyer does not rule out filing a lawsuit against the state, but for now prefers to wait for the completion of the process, which is still subject to appeal in a ruling that should only become known in January.
The lawmaker’s lawyer said today that there was enough evidence in the case file to support the prosecution’s case that the accused conspired to rig the government procurement process to guarantee access to public funds.
Prosecutor David Aguilar argued that seized “emails,” “shortened deadlines” set for government tenders, and invoices issued for services performed before the contracts underlying them were signed showed that the government procurement process was a simulated process designed to legally formalize access to funds within the framework of already existing procedures established through “informal contacts” with private companies.
According to the deputy, in this process there is “indisputable” material damage to the state, since the return of used community funds means that financing the “Safe Village – Safe People” project was the responsibility of the state, i.e. that is, taxpayers.
Regarding the participation of the former President of the National Emergency Management and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), General Carlos Murato Nunez, also a defendant, the deputy stressed that the contracts were signed by Murato Nunez, so he cannot claim ignorance or lack of responsibility in these procedures.
Investigative debates in the so-called anti-smoking collar case are taking place today at the Central Criminal Court in Lisbon, more than four years after upheavals in the government and ANEPC.
The case led to the government’s resignation in 2019 over alleged crimes of subsidy fraud, economic involvement in business and abuse of power.
Among the 19 defendants (14 people and five companies) are former Secretary of State for Civil Protection José Artur Neves and former ANEPC President Murato Nunez, on charges brought by a deputy in July 2022 after suspicions of purchasing his own funds. -protective collars in the “Safe Village – Safe People” program, launched after the 2017 forest fires.
An investigation into this process revealed “criminal irregularities in a number of public procurement procedures” within the framework of the “Safe Village – Safe People” program, which was co-financed by the Cohesion Fund, considering that it caused damage to the state in the amount of €364,980 allegedly allocated in favor of the defendants.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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