Conceição Cabrita was set free after being present at the first judicial interrogation, following his arrest, but was prohibited from «entering, attending or staying in Vila Real de Santo António City Council premises», as well as from contacting the other defendants in this case, announced the Public Ministry.
Conceição Cabrita already had, moreover, resigned this Thursday from his term as president of this Chamber, with «immediate effects».
After this first step subsequent to “Operation Triangle”, in which four people were arrested, including Conceição Cabrita, the Judge of Criminal Instruction of Évora considered that the commission of crimes of active and passive corruption of a holder of political office was “strongly indicted, of prevarication of the holder of political office and sufficiently indicted for the commission of crimes of embezzlement and abuse of powers of holder of political office”.
Thus, the defendants were prohibited from contacting each other, as the court considered that "the danger of continuing criminal activity and of disrupting the investigation is actually verified".
And if Conceição Cabrita was barred from entering municipal facilities, another of the suspects, an employee of the Chamber of VRSA, was ordered “suspended from her duties in the municipality”.
The judge also determined that a security deposit of 300 euros was imposed on one of the defendants, who, according to Jornal de Notícias, will be businessman Carlos de Matos, from Saint Germain, who was sold, by direct adjustment, a municipal land in Monte Gordo.
The Judiciary Police of the South suspects that the mayor of Vila Real de Santo António and the other two defendants who were arrested “received 300 euros, in exchange for favoring businessman Carlos Matos, and injured the municipality in about 1,4 millions of euros", according to this newspaper.
In addition to the four defendants arrested, the investigation has already constituted four more defendants, one of which is a legal person.
The inquiry will continue in the 1st section of the DIAP Regional de Évora, with the Public Prosecutor's Office continuing to be assisted in the investigation by the Southern Directorate of the Judiciary Police.
The Public Ministry is investigating "the practice of facts likely to include the practice of crimes of passive and active corruption, malfeasance, embezzlement, abuse of power, all of aggravated political office holder and active corruption crime."
The results of the inquiry motivated the “Operation Triangle”, in which “diligences were carried out to search and seize evidence in the Algarve, Lisbon, Leiria and Ourém regions».
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