Trial of former Caminha mayor Miguel Alves postponed

The trial of former Caminha mayor Miguel Alves and businesswoman Manuela Sousa, which was scheduled to begin this Wednesday in the Viana do Castelo court on charges of malfeasance, was postponed due to a strike by judicial workers.

This is the fourth postponement of the trial, which was due to begin in April 2023.

The court secretary informed reporters about the postponement of the hearing, scheduled for 9:15.

Upon arrival, Miguel Alves refused to speak to reporters, saying he would only make statements “at the courthouse.”

Manuela Souza arrived at the court before the former socialist mayor.

The Public Ministry (MP) accuses former socialist mayor Miguel Alves, who resigned as assistant secretary of state to the prime minister after learning of the indictment, of violating public contract rules when he agreed with a businesswoman to provide advisory services to a message for municipality “without any public procurement procedure.”

An indictment from the Regional Department of Investigation and Criminal Affairs of Porto (DIAP), to which Lusa had access, states that the case arose from “an anonymous complaint filed on the DCIAP portal.” [Departamento Central de Investigação e Ação Penal]”, July 3, 2019.

According to the indictment, in 2014, Miguel Alves and Manuela Souza, who used the surname Couto at the time of the events, “maintained contacts for the purpose of providing communications, image and communications consulting services to the municipality through the companies MIT and Mediana, owned and controlled by the defendant.

The indictment states that Miguel Alves and the businesswoman, at a meeting held on July 4, 2014 at the Caminha City Hall, agreed that one of the companies would “immediately begin to provide the municipality with consulting services in the field of communications.”

The MP says that, at least during July 2014 and from that date, the defendant “determined that employees of her companies, namely MIT and Mediana, would provide press consultation and advertising services for the Municipality of Caminha, which it did so with the knowledge and consent of the defendant Miguel Alves.”

“These communication and consulting services were in fact provided by the two companies MIT and Mediana (…), but without any formal, contractual or accounting framework, namely, without any external request, invoice or invoice or equivalent document, with for the purpose of billing for services provided by the companies to the chamber, which was known to the defendant Miguel Alves,” the prosecution alleges.