MEP Alvaro Amaro and Mayor Luis Tadeu, the former president and current mayor of Gouveia, respectively, were given suspended prison terms by the Guarda court on Thursday in a public-private partnership case.
The court acquitted the mayor of Alcobaza, Herminio Rodriguez.
Álvaro Amaro and Luis Tadeu were also acquitted of the additional penalty of losing their political mandate, given that they had served “consecutive mandates” in the meantime.
As part of the public-private partnership (PPP) process carried out by the municipalities of Trancoso, Gouveia (Guarda) and Alcobaça (Leiria) between 2007 and 2011, the current MEP and former mayor of Gouveia and Guarda, Alvaro Amaro, and the current mayor of the municipality of Gouveia Luis Tadeu (then vice-president) were sentenced to three and a half months in prison for evading political office with a suspended sentence on condition that they pay 25,000 euros over one year.
The court also sentenced Julio Sarmento, the former mayor of Trancoso, to the only effective sentence of seven years in prison for crimes of political evasion, corruption and money laundering.
Julio Sarmento will also have to return to the state a total amount of 552,000 euros within ten days.
In the same trial, businessman Fernando Gouveia was given a single sentence of six years and six months in prison.
Defendant Marco Carreiro, despite the mental anomaly from which he suffers, was sentenced to five years in prison for evading the execution of a suspended sentence and subject to payment of 25,000 euros.
Defendant Josefina Araujo was given a two and a half year suspended sentence for money laundering.
In addition to the mayor of Alcobaza, Hermínio Rodrigues, the panel of judges also decided to acquit the company MRG – Engineering & Solutions, SA and the defendant Eduardo Nogueira of the crimes they were accused of.
Defendants Julio Sarmento, Josefina Araujo and Marco Carreiro were absent from the courtroom of the Tribunal da Guarda, where the summary of the verdict took place, which lasted almost two hours.
Nine defendants were convicted on suspicion of having committed offenses of corruption, political evasion, money laundering and economic business involvement, among other things, in a PPP scheme allegedly damaging the accounts of the municipalities of Trancoso, Alcobaça and Gouveia, between 2007 and 2011 .
The Guarda Court began hearing the PPP case on May 10, 2022.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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