Former Montalegre mayor may return to municipality during trial for 395 crimes
Orlando Alves, former president of Montalegre Municipal Council, is authorised to enter the municipality from Friday onwards, in the course of proceedings investigating corruption and money laundering.
Former Montalegre mayor may return to municipality during trial for 395 crimes
The court trying Orlando Alves has decided that the former president of Montalegre Municipal Council may once again move freely through the municipality he once led. The restraining measure preventing him from entering has been lifted effective Friday, with the agreement of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The former councillor is answering to Murça Court on a total of 395 criminal offences, in a case involving 59 defendants — 40 individuals and 19 companies — arising from Operation Alchemy, launched by the Judicial Police in October 2022. Among the charges are the formation of a criminal organisation, misconduct in office, economic participation in business, money laundering, document forgery and fraud in obtaining public subsidies.
Also among the defendants is David Teixeira, former vice-president of the municipal authority.
According to the Public Prosecutor's indictment, between 2014 and 2022 the former councillors allegedly set up a system of favouring relatives and acquaintances in numerous public procurement procedures. They allegedly repeatedly used direct contracting, simplified tenders and the fragmentation of contracts to circumvent public procurement rules, with the alleged complicity of the former head of the Public Works division.
After his detention, Orlando Alves spent approximately six weeks in preventive custody. In December 2022 he was placed under house arrest and, in February 2024, released but subject to restrictions that included a ban on entering the municipality, where he owns a house in Salto.
When the trial began, on 17 April, his lawyers requested the lifting of all restraining measures. The court agreed to remove the requirement for periodic check-ins at a police station in Viseu — where he currently lives — since he regularly appears at hearings. It maintained, however, the ban on entering the municipality, which is now also revoked, before the deadline set for the end of August.
The decision came from the magistrate presiding over the panel of judges, according to judicial information provided to Correio da Manhã.
Source: Correio da Manhã