When entering the courtroom, one of the two “wing judges” stated that he had known one of the defendants in the present case as a “long-time” friend. Consequently, the magistrate decided to send a request for exemption from participating in the current trial to the president of the Porto Court of Appeal.
Carlos Pinho and José Artur Neves are accused of crimes of prevarication and aggravated forgery or counterfeiting of documents. The case also includes two municipal employees and an employee of Carlos Pinho’s company as defendants, who are also accused of the same crimes, in addition to the company itself, which is charged with one count of aggravated forgery or counterfeiting of documents.
The case is related to the paving works of the track and access roads of the Arouca Municipal Stadium in 2013, in order to obtain approval from the Portuguese Professional Football League to participate in professional competitions.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) accusation states that when Arouca was promoted to the First Division, the defendants knew that the stadium “did not meet the logistical requirements demanded by the League to participate in their professional competitions.”
One of the issues was the lack of access roads that would allow the approach, parking, and maneuvering of emergency vehicles, as the paving of the area surrounding the playing field was unpaved.
To avoid reputational costs due to the inability to use this space for professional competitions, the then-mayor José Artur Neves decided to award the contract to Carlos Pinho’s company, “violating the rules and regulations applicable to public procurement and expenditure authorization.”
The MP states that the construction work, which included the creation of three access ramps to the track surrounding the playing area, as well as the oval-shaped track itself, was carried out “without following public procurement procedures, budgetary allocation or forecast, or any administrative act or budgetary control, or even inspection of the works as they were legally obliged to do.”
In 2015, José Artur Neves allegedly ordered payment for the construction to Carlos Pinho, which implied the formalization of a tender procedure, despite the work already being completed. He was aided in this by the two municipal employee defendants, who prepared the descriptive and justificative report, the plan, and the specifications.
The contract was eventually awarded directly to Carlos Pinho’s company for the price of 25,026.71 euros, plus VAT, an amount that the MP wants to be declared forfeited to the State.
In addition to this case, José Artur Neves and Carlos Pinho have already been convicted in another process for prevarication and sentenced to three years of suspended prison each. The businessman’s sentence also includes a conviction for an aggravated crime of document forgery.
The current Mayor of Arouca, Margarida Belém, was convicted in the same process to one year and three months of suspended prison for a crime of document forgery.
The case involves facts related to the verbal celebration of a public works contract by the municipality of Arouca for the paving of a section located in a parish of the county, on the occasion of the 2017 local elections, as ordered by former president José Artur Neves.
