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The Central Criminal Court of Sintra sentenced, this Friday, to effective prison terms of between three and six years in prison, ten soldiers, including a major general and two colonels, of the Air Force, for between 2011 and 2016, charge more than 1.8 million euros to supply the mess of that branch of the Armed Forces.
Another 13 were sentenced to suspended terms of between two and a half and four and a half years. Seven others were acquitted of all crimes.
Passive corruption and, in some cases, document falsification are at stake.
In practice, mess managers billed suppliers more than the food they actually purchased. The difference would then be shared between businessmen and the military, including a general, Raúl Milhais de Carvalho, two colonels, Jorge Lima and Alcides Fernandes, and two other high-ranking officials from the Air Force’s Supply and Transportation Directorate.
The most severe penalties were applied to Milhais de Carvalho and Alcides Fernandes, aged 61 and 57, and to Captain Carlos Dias, 57, responsible for the events.
Fourteen businessmen were also sentenced to between one year and six months and four years in prison for active corruption and, in some cases, also for forgery. Two of them are effective: Paulo Silva, manager of Pac & Bom, and Fernando Ribeiro, manager of Doce Cabaz, were punished with, respectively, four years and three and a half years in prison.
The two entities -with contracts in almost every month- must, in turn, pay 112,500 and 42,000 euros and are prohibited from entering into contracts with the State for four years.
Of the 67 defendants at trial, 68 initially, but one company has since died out, 18 people and companies were acquitted.
The scheme will have covered, in total, ten Air Force facilities: Monte Real Air Base, Ota Military and Technical Training Center, Sintra Air Base, Azores Air Zone Command Air Base, Montijo Air Base , Beja Aerial Base, Figo Maduro Transit Aerodrome, Lisbon Support Unit – Messe de Alfragide, Support Unit – Monsanto Air Command, Air Force General Material Depot, in Alverca, and Alcochete Firing Range.
The decision is still subject to appeal.
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