Making their final allegations on Monday, prosecutors in what has become known as the Golden Visa trial have asked for only two of the many defendants to actually go to jail.
The others – which include former minister of interior administration Miguel Macedo – should receive suspended jail sentences of “up to five years”, recommended the Public Ministry.
In other words, if found guilty of their alleged crimes, they should be let off in the knowledge that if they commit any other ‘illegality’ in the time-period of their suspended sentence, they will indeed go to jail.
Tabloid Correio da Manhã reports on the final allegations today, adding that the Public Ministry is asking for effective prison terms for businessman Jaime Gomes and former head of the Institute of Notaries António Figueiredo, even though it “admits that the court won’t decide as proven the totality of the facts”.
This investigation which hit the headlines in 2014 (click here) has been made doubly difficult by what prosecutors dubbed “the conspiracy of silence, memory lapses and contradictions” of many of the defendants.
Representing the Public Ministry, prosecutor José Nisa almost didn’t get to state the case in full. There was an altercation with the judge who effectively told him to hurry up and get to the end of it.
Explains Observador, José Nisa had already been talking for two hours. He ended up taking a break to “have some water”, and then returned to wind up his allegations in a trial that has been strung out for more than a year.
Aside from facing four crimes – three for prevarication and one for the trafficking of influences – Miguel Macedo is also fielding suspicions that he “benefitted” Everjets in the tender for the maintenance and management of the government’s controversial fleet of Kamov helicopters.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
