The former director of the Museum of the Presidency, Diogo Gaspar, was sentenced this Monday to 6 years and 6 months in prison after the Cavaleiro operation. The reading of the verdict was known at the Campus de Justiça in Lisbon.
The defendant was found guilty of 18 of the 42 crimes he was charged with, including abuse of office, economic involvement in business, influence peddling, document forgery, embezzlement and money laundering.
There are three other defendants involved in the trial, namely José Diaz, Paulo Duarte and Vitor Santos, who were sentenced to less than two years of probation for crimes related to economic participation in business.
The lawyer for the former director of the Presidency Museum is appealing the six-year and six-month prison sentence handed down to Diogo Gaspar in the Operação Cavaleiro trial.
“The next step is an appeal,” Raul Soares da Veiga said as he left the courtroom.
While acknowledging that the punishment was effective and “very serious”, the lawyer emphasized that Judge Luis Ribeiro’s decision meant a conviction for “significantly less than half of the crimes” charged by the Ministry of State (MP).
In update