Luís Filipe Barreira, aged 51, Ana Rita Cavaco, aged 49, and the other defendants were acquitted of charges of embezzlement and document forgery brought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
During the court’s verdict announcement, the presiding judge, Armandina Silva Lopes, stated that there was a “serious and reasonable doubt” regarding the defendants’ involvement in the alleged crimes.
The prosecution had accused the 13 defendants, all linked to Ana Rita Cavaco’s first term (2016-2023), of collectively receiving over 63,000 euros in travel allowances for fictitious trips in 2016.
Luís Filipe Barreira, who became the Order of Nurses’ chairman in December 2023, was the vice-president at the time.
Judge Armandina Silva Lopes highlighted that the evidence presented at the trial did not “conclusively demonstrate” that the mileage logs were forged. She cited, among other testimonies, that of a Judicial Police (PJ) inspector who acknowledged that the defendants might have used other vehicles than those listed in the forms.
Referring to “mistakes [in the entries] that seem plausible,” the magistrate also minimized the testimony of a partially confessing defendant, who was acquitted, citing “contradictions and weaknesses” in their statements and an underlying “climate of great animosity” against the other defendants.
“Faced with doubt, it is necessary to decide in favor of the defendants, according to the principle ‘in dubio pro reo’,” concluded the presiding judge.
After the trial, most of the defendants’ lawyers, Tiago Costa Andrade and Rui Patrício, expressed satisfaction with the acquittal.
“The facts were deemed unproven, the defendants were acquitted, and the court acted according to criminal procedure rules,” emphasized Rui Patrício.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office filed the charges in January 2023, and the trial began in January 2025.
[News updated at 15:41]
