Nuno Fonseca of Livre/PS, along with Vice-President Fernando Fernandes, councilor Joel Costa, and former chief of staff António Faria, faced accusations from the Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding alleged misconduct between 2018 and 2020. They were purported to have favored two companies managed by themselves and their relatives through the allocation of catering services for lunches, dinners, and events organized by the municipality of Felgueiras, located in the Porto district.
The municipal officials requested a judicial review, and on November 4, 2024, a criminal investigation judge determined there was no evidence of collusion or favoritism intended to benefit the food service companies linked to their families and decided that the accused would not be brought to trial.
Dissatisfied, the Public Prosecutor appealed the decision, but the Porto Court of Appeal today rejected the appeal and upheld the decision not to prosecute, confirming the non-indictment of the accused.
“In summary, the case files do not indicate that the political officeholders at the Felgueiras Municipal Council consciously carried out or decided to unlawfully harm or benefit someone through their actions,” states the Porto Court of Appeal’s ruling, accessed by news agency Lusa.
The Court of Appeal pointed out that this conclusion is “also to some extent due to the relatively small number of direct contracts described in the accusation, the sums involved, the awarding of contracts to the lowest bidders whenever there were multiple companies invited, and the explanations given by municipal employees who handled the administrative procedures and clarified that the goods and services were requested by various municipal services based on specific needs.”
This decision by the Porto Court of Appeal is not subject to appeal.
In a reaction sent to Lusa, the lawyer representing the president and vice-president of the municipality of Felgueiras stated that “justice has been served once again,” criticizing the Public Prosecutor for “continuing to waste public resources on cases based solely on anonymous complaints against local government officials in our country.”
Nuno Cerejeira Namora, the lawyer, argued, “The Public Prosecutor’s narrative was based on the claim that President Nuno Fonseca committed or instructed the commitment of illegal acts, in league with members of the executive and his chief of staff, in procedures aimed at securing catering services to benefit two entities.”
“Evidence demonstrated that all legal criteria regarding the rotation in selecting these services were complied with. How long will the Public Prosecutor maintain this witch hunt against local officials? This approach only deepens the divide between citizens and politics, especially concerning local municipal authority,” Namora criticized.
In addition to the three municipal officials and the former chief of staff, the case included two other defendants – managers of the involved companies with family ties to the officials – who also will not face prosecution.
