The company Butwell Trading, Serviços e Investimentos SA, owner of Quinta da Rocha, in Ria de Alvor, was this Friday condemned by the collective of the Judicial Court of Portimão, for a crime of damage to the environment and qualified disobedience.
The company, one of the members of the group linked to businessman Aprígio Santos, was sentenced to a fine of 140 euros, to be paid to the State. This was one of the first times, if not the first, in which a company was convicted of damage to Nature in Portugal.
After reading the judgment, Joel Hervé dos Santos, son of Aprígio Santos and current administrator of Butwell SA, told reporters: "we are going to appeal".
After condemnation of Aprígio Santos himself, in 2012, also for crimes of damage to Nature and disobedience, due to acts of deliberate destruction of classified species and habitats, existing on its property at Quinta da Rocha, committed repeatedly over several years, especially in 2006 and 2007, the same facts have now led to the conviction of the company that owns that area of the Ria de Alvor.
The collective considered that, "after analyzing the evidence, the matter of fact of the prosecution is essentially proven", having been presented "extensive testimonial and documentary evidence" to prove the prosecution's accusation.
The panel of judges also said that "the witnesses left this Court no doubt about the existence of protected species and habitats", namely in the marsh area, and of the action "on them by the defendant".
The lawyer of Associação A Rocha, who acted as an assistant in the process, told the Sul Informação that this sentence is “important for a legal type of crime that still has a short life”, since the criminal liability of legal persons (companies) for damages against the environment was only introduced in the Penal Code in 2007.
«Until now, Nature was the poor relation of Environmental Law», considered Joaquim Sabino Rogério. «It is defined here that, in terms of nature conservation, the little plants also need to be respected. A value is being affirmed here”, stressed the lawyer, adding that the “penalty of a fine of 140 thousand euros is significant”.
For his part, Marcial Felgueiras, director of A Rocha, underlined that “it was never the objective of our association, by acting as an assistant in the process, to harm the company. We just wanted justice to be done, which actually happened».
Butwell SA, which had been accused of a crime of damage to Nature and seven crimes of simple disobedience, ended up seeing its penalty aggravated, as the collective raised the penal framework, transforming these seven crimes of simple disobedience, one of qualified disobedience, more serious.
The owners of Quinta da Rocha had been sentenced by the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Loulé in 2012 to “refrain from any work that involves the mobilization of land or removal of vegetation in areas where the occurrence of protected species and habitats is mapped and to the complete restoration of all destroyed natural values", in what was a sentence, "unprecedented in Portuguese environmental law", and which was confirmed in 2014 by the Central Administrative Court of the South.
However, this time considered the collective of the Judicial Court of Portimão, the defendant did not comply with these orders and even had "several actions that violated the decisions of the Administrative Court", which led to aggravating the type of crime.
This increase in the penal framework should, in fact, be one of the main reasons for the appeal for the defense of the company that owns Quinta da Rocha.
Butwell SA was the only company to compete, with a project with hotels and houses in Quinta da Rocha, in the tender opened by the Portimão Chamber to the Ria de Alvor Tourist Development Center (NDT).
In the public discussion phase of the project for this NDT, the criminal conviction of businessman Aprígio Santos for environmental crime in Quinta da Rocha was one of the issues criticized by many of the participants.
Last week, a source from the Office of the Presidency of the Portimão Chamber. told the Sul Informação which the final report on the proposal presented by the company Butwell for the NDT of the Ria de Alvor «will be produced during the month of July» and «present to the Chamber» for discussion.
It will be based on this report that the municipal executive will make the decision to approve or reject the application of that company to the NDT.
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