Prosecutor Orlando Figueira has filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court (CC) under Operation Fizz, preventing him from serving his six-year and eight-month sentence for corruption so far.
“The process (…) was not brought to the 1st instance, since the defendant filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court, which has already been accepted for consideration by the ruling of July 13, 2023,” explained Lusa to the TSA, which rejected in recent years two months of the appeal and Orlando Figueira’s subsequent complaint against the 3rd Criminal Section conference.
The court source contacted by Lusa had already mentioned after the dismissal of the last complaint that a final decision was almost inevitable and could even be issued by the STJ before the process reached the first instance for the subsequent issuance of a warrant. execute the sentence.
In December 2022, the TC also dismissed an appeal by Orlando Figueira’s defense, setting the stage for the verdict to come into effect.
However, in the meantime, the Court of Appeal of Lisbon accepted another appeal submitted by the public prosecutor to the STJ with suspensive effect, which prevented a final and non-appealable decision after the decision of the TC. And it was this appeal and the subsequent lawsuit of the defense of Orlando Figueira that the Supreme Court gave no grounds for.
Convicted in December 2018 of crimes related to corruption, money laundering, breach of secrecy of justice and forgery of documents in a case involving former Angola vice president Manuel Vicente, Orlando Figueira saw Lisbon relations uphold the verdict in 2021 and he was also expelled from the judiciary late last year by the Higher Council of the State Ministry.
As part of this trial, lawyer Paulo Blanco was given a suspended sentence of four years and four months in prison for active corruption, money laundering, violation of judicial secrecy and forgery of documents.
The Operação Fizz process involves payments of more than 760,000 euros from former Vice President of Angola Manuel Vicente and an offer by Orlando Figueira as legal adviser to Banco Privado Atlântico in Angola in exchange for postponing investigations that also involved the former chairman of Sonangol. namely, the acquisition of luxury real estate in the Estoril-Sol building for 3.8 million euros.
The criminal case of Manuel Vicente was separated from Operação Fizz and transferred to the Angolan judiciary.