The resigning president of the Regional Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque (PSD), asked to be heard in the process regarding suspected corruption in the region, in which he was named a defendant, his lawyer, Pedro Barosa, revealed yesterday.
“I confirm that Dr. Miguel Albuquerque asked to be heard in the case in which he was named a defendant,” said lawyer Pedro Barosa, in response to the Lusa agency.
Information about Miguel Albuquerque’s request to be heard in the process regarding suspected corruption in the region was provided by CNN Portugal, noting that in 2021 the president of the Regional Government of Madeira, now resigned, had made himself available to make statements.
The case was distributed to judge Jorge Bernardes de Melo, of the Central Criminal Instruction Court, at the Justice Campus, in Lisbon, where the three suspects detained in this context are expected to begin being interrogated on Tuesday for coercive measures to be enacted, according to a judicial source.
On Wednesday, following around 130 home and non-home searches carried out by the Judiciary Police (PJ), mainly in Madeira, but also in the Azores and in various areas of the continent, the then mayor of Funchal, Pedro Calado, were arrested (PSD), the leader of the construction group AFA, Avelino Farinha, and the main shareholder of the group linked to civil construction Socicorreia, Custódio Correia.
The arrest of the two businessmen and the mayor of Funchal followed an operation that also affected the president of the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, who was named a defendant and officially resigned from his position today, a decision he announced on Friday, despite initially saying he was not resigning.
Following this process, Pedro Calado resigned from his position as mayor of Funchal, because “he understood that it was the appropriate conduct given the circumstances he is going through”, his lawyer, Paulo Sá e Cunha, said on Saturday.
At issue are suspicions of active and passive corruption, economic participation in business, malfeasance, receiving or offering improper advantages, abuse of powers and influence peddling, according to the PJ.