The Court of Appeal of Coimbra today confirmed the acquittal of the 11 defendants in the Pedrógão Grande fire case, in which the Public Prosecutor’s Office recorded 63 deaths and 44 injuries.
In a statement from the Court of Appeal of Coimbra (TRC), it was announced that appeals were denied, upholding the decision of the Leiria Judicial Court, dated September 13, 2022.
On that day, the panel of judges from the first instance court acquitted the commander of the Pedrógão Grande Volunteer Firefighters, Augusto Arnaut, then responsible for the rescue operations, two employees of 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 included former mayors of Castanheira de Pera and Pedrógão Grande, Fernando Lopes and Valdemar Alves, respectively, as well as the current mayor of Figueiró dos Vinhos, Jorge Abreu.
The former vice-president of Pedrógão Grande Municipality, José Graça, and the then head of the Forest Office of this council, Margarida Gonçalves, were also acquitted.
The case involved charges of negligent homicide and serious bodily harm by negligence.
