Fernando Madureira and his wife Sandra were charged with 31 crimes, as were 10 other defendants. These include seven crimes of physical injury, 19 crimes of aggravated coercion, one crime of incitement, one crime of throwing objects or liquids and three crimes of infringement of freedom of information. Hugo Loureiro, one of the suspects, is also responsible for possessing prohibited weapons.
The charges in Operation Pretoriano include teacher António Sá and FC Porto employee Thiago Aguiar. They were involved in the attack on their partner, but prosecutors say it was an isolated incident.
However, two new suspects emerged in the process, also members of the Super Dragões team – Fabio Souza and José Dias, who are now part of the group of 12 accused.
The Public Ministry has no doubt that what happened at the general assembly of FC Porto last November was carefully planned and that “Macaco” and his wife Sandra understood that it was necessary to create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear in order to put the partners in an awkward position.
In this regard, the prosecutor says, they were helped by Fernando Saul, who was the fan relations officer.
The aim will be to obtain approval for the statutes, which, according to the indictment, will strengthen the Madureira pair’s position at the club and allow them to continue to make high financial profits from the ticket sales business.
It then describes several episodes of attacks on members, as well as acts of intimidation. Sandra stopped several people from filming. “Either leave or die, Porto is ours. Anyone who is not with Pinto da Costa will die,” were some of the threats. The accusation is based on several messages exchanged before and after the meeting, which prove what happened.
The ministry also states that several witnesses reported that the management of Futebol Clube do Porto was passive in the face of what was happening and that they acted too late. However, no evidence was found that any element of the structure was responsible.
At the end of the indictment, the prosecutor also states that “Macaco” remains in pretrial detention and “Katao” remains at home.
Author: Tanya Laranjo This Ana Isabel Fonseca
Source: CM Jornal
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