Vice President of CMF and Head of Division of Gardens and Green Areas will account for 13 crimes of negligent homicide and 24 crimes of offenses against physical integrity for negligence.
The collective judge-president maintained the decision not to pronounce the ex-mayor of Funchal City Council, Paulo Cafôfo for judgment. The decision was taken early on Monday during the instructional debate. “Therefore and under the provisions of art. 283 (2), 307 and 308 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, I decide not to pronounce the defendant Paulo Alexandre Nascimento Cafôfo by practice, in material authorship, and in the royal contest, thirteen crimes of negligent homicide, and by the combined provisions of articles 137, paragraphs 1 and 15, of the Penal Code and twenty-four crimes of offenses against physical integrity by negligence, and by article 148, paragraph 1 of the same legal diploma “, reads in the final order of the instruction.
The vice-president of the municipality of Funchal, Idalina Perestrelo – responsible for the areas of Urban Environment, Green and Public Spaces – and the head of the Gardens and Green Spaces Division, Francisco Andrade, both defendants in the process, were pronounced for trial. It is recalled that the two defendants had asked for the instruction because they considered that they should not be pronounced for trial. The Court had a different understanding. “To pronounce each of the defendants Idalina Perestrelo Luís and Francisco Pedro de Freitas Andrade for the practice, in material authorship and in a real contest, of thirteen crimes of negligent homicide, and by the combined provisions of articles 137, n. 1 and 15 of the Penal Code and twenty-four crimes of offenses against physical integrity due to negligence.
On August 15, 2017, a centenary and large tree fell on a group of people who, in Largo da Fonte, on Monte, awaited the passage of the procession of Nossa Senhora do Monte. The fall caused the death of 13 people and about a hundred injured. In October 2018, the prosecutor charged two of the three defendants in the process. CMF Vice-President Idalina Perestrelo, who held the Urban Environment, Green and Public Spaces, and the Head of the Gardens and Green Spaces Division, Francisco Andrade, for 13 crimes of negligent homicide and 49 for offenses to integrity involuntary or negligent physical activity. The two requested that an investigation be opened. At the same time, the MP did not accuse the then president of the CMF and justified the decision with the fact that Paulo Cafôfo delegated powers over green spaces. A year later, in October last year, the investigative phase of the process began, behind closed doors. Now, more than a year later, which is also related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the investigating judge’s decision was known.
Of course, those in charge take no blame, you could see that coming a mile away, I hope he is totally shamed by this, but of course, he won’t be.