The Constitutional Court has rejected Armando Vara’s appeal against the revocation of the sentence pardon granted during the pandemic, likely leading the former governor to return to prison to complete his remaining sentence.
The Constitutional Court’s decision, dated September 16, dismissed the appeal from the defense of the former government member under José Sócrates and former Caixa Geral de Depósitos administrator, who had been already convicted in the Face Oculta and Operation Marquês cases.
The five-and-a-half-year prison sentence, compounded and without the two-year pandemic pardon, was upheld in May by the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ).
As per the February ruling, Armando Vara’s argument that the two-year partial pardon, initially applied due to COVID-19 emergency measures, should remain on his compounded sentence was unfounded. His compounded sentence is now set at five years and six months.
Vara’s defense claimed that with partial pardon application, only six months remained to be served, requesting that this be in home detention. However, the STJ’s denial of pardon entitles the former minister to serve two years, five months, and 27 days more in prison.
The compounded sentence involves a money laundering conviction, excluding Vara from partial pardon eligibility under the pandemic’s law, which did not cover laundering crimes.
Further sentence implementation is subject to the final Constitutional Court ruling and referral to the original tribunal. Only upon reentry into the penal system can the Tribunal of Sentence Execution make decisions about conditional release or alter sentence terms to possibly allow home detention or other formats.
Armando Vara is now required to pay court costs amounting to 1,530 euros following the TC decision.
In May 2024, the Supreme Court of Justice increased Vara’s prison sentence to five years and six months, combining penalties from the Face Oculta and Operation Marquês cases.
Initially sentenced to five years in the Face Oculta case for three counts of influence peddling, Vara was released from Évora Prison in October 2021 after serving about three years under pandemic-related extraordinary measures.
In July 2021, he received a two-year prison sentence for money laundering in the Operation Marquês case.
