The League of Portuguese Firefighters (LBP) expressed satisfaction with the acquittal of the commander of the Pedrógão Grande Volunteer Firefighters, Augusto Arnaut, in the legal case concerning the 2017 fires in that municipality, and criticized the State.
In a statement, the LBP expressed its satisfaction with the commander’s acquittal by the Court of Appeal of Coimbra (TRC), following a similar decision by the Judicial Court of Leiria, stating that “justice has clearly been done,” and lamented, once again, that “in this matter, the State has behaved disgracefully.”
“Thus concludes a dramatic process to hold Commander Arnaut accountable for what the State should have assumed from the beginning,” the League argued, emphasizing that “instead, the State chose to dodge the issue.”
On behalf of the firefighters of Portugal, the LBP “recognizes and commends the continuous displays of character and resilience demonstrated by the commander,” and, “with the process concluded (…), believes it is necessary to draw conclusions on the conduct of all involved in this process.”
The TRC today confirmed the acquittal of the 11 defendants in the case of the Pedrógão Grande fires in June 2017, in which the Public Prosecutor’s Office counted 63 deaths and 44 injured who sought criminal proceedings.
The TRC denied the appeals, maintaining the decision of the Judicial Court of Leiria from September 13, 2022.
On that day, the panel of judges in the lower court acquitted the commander of the Pedrógão Grande Volunteer Firefighters, Augusto Arnaut, who was in charge of the rescue operations, two employees from the former EDP Distribuição, now E-Redes (José Geria and Casimiro Pedro), and three from Ascendi (José Revés, Ugo Berardinelli, and Rogério Mota).
The acquittal also extended to the former mayors of Castanheira de Pera and Pedrógão Grande, Fernando Lopes and Valdemar Alves, respectively, as well as the current mayor of the Municipality of Figueiró dos Vinhos, Jorge Abreu.
The former vice-president of the Municipality of Pedrógão Grande, José Graça, and the then head of the Forest Office of this council, Margarida Gonçalves, were also acquitted.
The charges included crimes of homicide by negligence and harm to physical integrity by negligence, some of which were serious.
The majority of the victims died on National Road 236-1, which connects Figueiró dos Vinhos to Castanheira de Pera, the two other municipalities, along with Pedrógão Grande, that were most affected by these fires, which erupted on June 17, 2017.
Augusto Arnaut, then commander of the rescue operations, was tried for 63 crimes of homicide and 44 of harm to physical integrity, 12 of which were serious, all due to negligence.
