The court will decide this Thursday whether the anti-smoking collar case will go to trial.

The Central Criminal Court (TCIC) will decide this Thursday whether the accused in the anti-smoking collar case will face trial.

During the investigative debate held on December 19, the Office of the Public Prosecutor (MP) admitted that the evidence collected in the materials is insufficient to substantiate the charges against the former Secretary of State for Civil Protection, José Artur Neves.

However, prosecutor David Aguilar believed there was enough evidence in the case to support the prosecution’s thesis that the defendants conspired to rig the government procurement process to ensure access to public funds.

According to the deputy, the seized “e-mails”, the “compressed deadlines” established for government tenders, as well as invoices issued for services rendered before contracts were signed, confirm that the public procurement process was a simulated process in order to legally frame the already ongoing procedures access to funds, pointing to the “undeniable” material damage to the state in this process.

Regarding the participation of the former President of the National Emergency Management and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), General Carlos Murato Nunez, the deputy stressed that the contracts were signed by this defendant, so he cannot claim ignorance or lack of responsibility in these procedures.

The anti-smoking collar case led to the government’s resignation in 2019 in a trial 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 Arthur Neves and former ANEPC President Murato Nunez.

The accusation was announced by a deputy in July 2022 after suspicions of purchasing self-defense collars as part of 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.