And so the corruption continues….
The Lisbon Court of Appeal (TRL) has complied with the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s wishes and today changed the coercive measures applied to two defendants in the ‘Zarco’ investigation. Avelino Farinha and Pedro Calado are expected to have their passports confiscated, as there is a “risk of them fleeing” to Angola or Dubai, where they have connections. According to DIÁRIO, the same measure was not applied to businessman Custódio Correia, the third defendant who was detained. Lusa News Agency had access to the ruling and confirmed the decision.
It should be recalled that the three defendants were arrested on 24 January 2024 as part of an investigation by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP), related to alleged crimes of corruption, money laundering and malfeasance in Madeira. They were taken to Lisbon on a Portuguese Air Force plane, under the custody of the Judicial Police.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office requested their preventive detention, but they were released 22 days later by the criminal investigating judge Jorge Bernardes de Melo, subject only to the lightest coercive measure (identity and residence permit), as it was considered that there was no evidence of the commission of crimes.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed the coercive measures. In a 300-page appeal, it repeatedly stressed that Pedro Calado had lied during the mega-search operation and at various times. The Public Prosecutor’s Office’s understanding was that “all the dangers that were present at the time of the first interrogation continue to exist, albeit in less intense aspects, and the precautionary requirements that the case demands can be satisfied by applying coercive measures that do not involve deprivation of liberty”. It therefore requested that the defendants be prohibited from contacting each other, as well as from visiting the facilities of the Regional Government and the companies involved. It also requested that they be prohibited from travelling abroad, and that they must hand over their passports to the authorities, in addition to having to inform the Public Prosecutor’s Office whenever they leave Madeira for the mainland.