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The sentence of the so-called TUB-Transportes Urbanos de Braga case can be definitively annulled, if the judges of the Court of Appeal of Guimarães follow the position of the Public Ministry, which proposes the nullity of the sentence of the Court of Braga.
In an opinion on the appeal of Artur Marques, Vítor Sousa’s lawyer, the Deputy Attorney General of that Court, Vítor Guimarães, defends that it be granted, with a declaration of nullity of the sentence. The magistrate accepts the thesis that, in the trial, there was a substantial change in the facts that the former administrator of the TUB, Vítor Sousa, and the other three defendants, were charged and pronounced, so the sentence is null.
Vítor Guimarães points out that the former administrators of the TUB, Vítor Sousa and Cândida Serapicos, were initially accused of a single crime of passive corruption, continuously, but began to be tried for several crimes, a fact that generates nullity.
In other words, the two former managers were charged with a crime of passive corruption by illegal act but ended up found guilty, albeit with prescription, of four passive corruption by lawful act.
In addition, it emphasizes that in the accusation, MAN / Braga, a subsidiary of MAN-Portugal – which sold the buses to the TUBs – was a defendant, as was the case of its manager, Abílio Costa, now deceased. Also in this sense, the accusation was modified, becoming MAN-Portugal the accused and Abílio Costa as a witness.
There was corruption in the Urban Transport of Braga, a prescribed crime and Vítor Sousa was acquitted
Artur Marques told O MINHO that Vítor Sousa does not accept having committed any crime, not even prescribed, and stressed that, if the Relationship judges accept the MP’s thesis, the process returns to the Braga Court having to ask the accused If they accept such a “substantial change of facts.” Now, of course, they will say no, “there the process dies.”
commissions
In July 2018, the Braga Court proved that the two former TUB administrators received ‘commissions’ for the purchase of 23 MAN buses, but concluded that the offenses expired in 2013.
The judge explained that, since it was not proven that the bids for the purchase of buses had been manipulated in the years 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007, – given that, according to the technical criteria of the specifications, MAN would always win, for having the best vehicle – the accused committed the crime but “by lawful act”, which has a lower criminal framework than “by illegal act” – of which they were accused – and prescribes before.
The two were also acquitted of harmful administration, since it has not been proven that they have violated the “rules of good management.”
The same principle applied to Luís Paradinha, former MAN-Portugal manager, who was found guilty of an act of active corruption for a lawful act in the acquisition of vehicles in 2007.
The court acquitted the former technical director of the TUB, Luis Vale, considering that he did not receive anything in cash and did not breach the technical criteria in the tenders to favor MAN over Volvo, according to the prosecution. Man / Portugal himself was also acquitted.
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