The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), represented by prosecutor Angelina Freitas, has requested prison sentences for all defendants in the final allegations of the trial, admitting these could be near the minimum limits and suspended in execution.
The MP also sought additional penalties including the prohibition of access to subsidies or grants and a ban on exercising public functions for those defendants who held public positions. The MP requested the forfeiture of profits obtained by the defendants and the application of extended confiscation for assets deemed incongruent by the court.
Angelina Freitas argued that the public procurement procedures for acquiring anti-smoke collars and protection kits under the Aldeia Segura – Pessoas Seguras program were “a sham,” with flawed procedures that disregarded public procurement rules and competitive obligations.
The prosecutor stated a plan was developed “at the level of the Secretary of State for Civil Protection” — then led by José Artur Neves — which was “shared by all the defendants.” Recorded phone conversations involving General Mourato Nunes, former president of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC), allegedly support this, along with his adherence to the plan.
In defense, Mourato Nunes’s lawyer, José António Barreiros, called for his client’s acquittal, criticizing the MP’s accusation as “crafted in a majestic plural,” lacking concrete elements or evidence of crimes, and countering the thesis of “broad collusion” and variable participation and complicity among the defendants.
Rita Castanheira Neves, attorney for José Artur Neves, cited “gross errors” in the MP’s charges and a “lack of courage” to acknowledge them.
In her final arguments, she highlighted the misidentification between two women named Isilda Gomes: one a former mayor of Portimão and the other the wife of the owner of Foxtrot, a company also charged in the case. She argued this error undermines part of the accusation against José Artur Neves.
Rita Castanheira Neves emphasized that despite the MP’s “house of cards” thesis falling apart after the error was proven, the investigating judge still accepted it.
During the instruction phase, the MP previously admitted insufficient evidence to sustain charges and convict the former Secretary of State for Civil Protection, José Artur Neves, a key defendant in this process.
However, the investigating judge decided to send all defendants to trial in a ruling made in January 2024.
The verdict is scheduled for 13:30 at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, about a year after the trial began in September 2024.
The case involves alleged crimes of subsidy fraud, economic participation in business, and abuse of power connected to public procurement and the purchase of self-protection collars under the “Aldeia Segura — Pessoas Seguras” program initiated following the 2017 forest fires.
Among the 19 defendants (14 individuals and five companies) are the former Secretary of State for Civil Protection José Artur Neves and the former president of ANEPC, General Carlos Mourato Nunes.
The charges were disclosed by the MP in July 2022 after the investigation identified “illegality with criminal relevance in various public procurement procedures” within the Aldeia Segura – Pessoas Seguras program, co-financed by the Cohesion Fund, alleging a State loss of 364,980 euros supposedly diverted to the defendants’ benefit.
