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Major General Raúl de Carvalho and Colonel Alcides Fernandes were sentenced this Friday to six years in prison for aggravated passive corruption, in the case of overbilling in the troubles of the Air Force and the Armed Forces Hospital.
The Sintra Court decided this Friday, in addition to six years in prison, to apply to the two soldiers the accessory penalty of prohibition of functions for four years, having both been acquitted of the crime of document falsification.
Another of the most severe penalties applied in the “Operation Zeus” process was for the Jorge Lima, who was sentenced to five years and six months in prison also for aggravated passive corruption and suspension of functions for four years. THE Captain Luís Oliveira, who confessed the facts in court, was sentenced to four years in prison with suspended sentence, being prevented for two years to perform functions in the armed forces. THE Major Rogério Martinho was sentenced to four years in prison with a suspended sentence by aggravated passive corruption.
When reading the sentence, the presiding judge, Susana Madeira, stressed that “the higher one rises in the military hierarchy “the greater the” degree of culpability “ and the obligation to “fulfill the statutory duties” of the military career, which require honor and loyalty to the institution. When evaluating the measure of punishment applied to Major Raúl Milhais de Carvalho and Alcides Fernandes, the panel of judges revealed that they weighed the fact that these two military men “have never taken the side of the truth”, even trying to discredit the illegal acts denounced by Captain Luís Oliveira and that exposed the entire corrupt scheme. The judge criticized what he called “Sobranceria” and “lack of self-censorship” Those and other defendants who did not confess the facts were finally sentenced to effective prison terms.
The judge also highlighted the decisive contribution to the discovery of the facts “Undercover agent”, Lieutenant Miguel Martins, which, he said, “was” very useful “to dismantle a corrupt scheme that had been in place at least since the end of 2011. The” undercover agent “- revealed the judge in the 900-page sentence – took action on November 26 2015, duly authorized by the criminal investigating judge, so there is no reason for the defense to allege that it functioned as “Agent provocateur” of the crimes in question. In addition, he noted, the “undercover agent” Miguel Martins gathered a variety of documentary evidence on the facts that would appear in the indictment.
The panel of judges acquitted seven of the 30 soldiers and 11 other defendants, between companies and entrepreneurs. Of the various soldiers sentenced, 10 of them had effective prison terms, ranging from six to three years. Of the total 23 servicemen convicted by the court13 saw their prison sentence suspended in the execution, some of them for having collaborated with the justice in the different procedural stages.
Two businessmen were sentenced to effective imprisonment, and the companies Pac & bom and Chavibom and Docecabaz were sentenced to fines of 112,500 euros, 60,000 euros and 42,000 euros, respectively, and were still prevented from entering into contracts with the State for four years.
Operation Zeus had 68 defendants, including 30 soldiers (16 officers and 14 sergeants), companies and individuals, but it ended with 67 because one of the companies was dissolved. The subject of the investigation was the overbilling in the acquisition of food and raw materials for the preparation of meals in the troubles of the Air Force and the Armed Forces Hospital, for which the military allegedly received money and gifts from suppliers, in a case that would have damaged the State in around 1.55 million euros.
Upon leaving the court, the lawyer Carlos do Paulo, defender of Major Rogério Martinho, clearly satisfied with the suspension of the sentence imposed on his client, considered that it was “Historic day” for justice and for those, like Major Martinho and Captain Luís Oliveira, “against everything and everyone”, decided to tell the truth of the facts (corrupting scheme), supporting during year and a half of trial and more than 100 hearings the “contempt and hostility” of the remaining defendants of passive corruption.
According to the same lawyer, although silence is a right of any defendant, the court did not cease to censure the defendants who “kept silent” throughout the trial despite finding “exhaustive evidence” in the prosecution and the indictment. .
Carlos do Paulo also mentioned that the sentence read by President Susana Madeira negatively underlined that said defendants showed no regret or self-censorship, despite having spent months in preventive prison accused of the serious crime of passive corruption.
“They were in preventive detention for several months and it was not changed,” said the lawyer, referring to the military who tried to hide the crimes from the court.
He pointed out that it was his elector Rogério Martinho who “told the whole truth” about the role of Major General Milhais de Carvalho and the operation of the DAT (Department of Supply and Transport) of the Air Force at the service of the problems and where they went. many of the corrupt acts.
