The Supreme Court of Justice has overturned the decision of the Lisbon Court of Appeal and ordered the return of the passports of the former mayor of Funchal, Pedro Calado, and the businessman Avelino Farinha, according to today’s report by the television channel Now.
With this decision, the two suspects are only subject to a Statement of Identity and Residence, the least restrictive coercive measure provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In the ruling, cited by Now, the judges criticized the decision of the Lisbon Court of Appeal that imposed restrictions on freedom of movement, saying that the judges should have better analyzed the initial circumstances and the corresponding crimes.
If the Court of Appeal “had done so,” the Supreme Court advisors wrote, “it would certainly have realized that the facts considered by the investigating judge as strongly indicative were atypical,” since the facts presented by the Public Prosecutor’s Office were considered “as not indicative” – they quote.
It should be recalled that this process, which also involves businessman Custódio Correia, investigates a case of alleged corruption in Madeira.