A ruling, dated May 8 and consulted by Lusa today, denied the appeal filed by the municipality in the district of Aveiro, upholding the decision of the Santa Maria da Feira Court that denied the request because it was submitted out of time.

After being notified of the accusation on July 21, 2023, the municipality requested on September 29 to be constituted as an assistant in the proceedings, simultaneously filing a request for civil compensation against five defendants, namely the former mayors Joaquim Pinto Moreira and Miguel Reis and three municipal employees.

However, the request was rejected by the Feira Court, because "it was filed late", because it was filed more than 20 days after the defendants were notified of the accusation, as established in the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Disagreeing with the decision, the municipality appealed to the Court of Appeal, arguing that the request for compensation it had made "was filed on time", further arguing that the deadline had been extended due to the declaration of exceptional complexity of the case.

This argument did not convince the appellate judges, however, who denied the appeal.

The "Vortex" case is related to "real estate projects and their respective licensing, concerning multi-family buildings and hotel units, involving urban interests of tens of millions of euros, processed for the benefit of certain economic operators".

The operation culminated on January 10, 2023 with the arrest of the then Mayor of Espinho, Miguel Reis (PS), the head of the Urban Planning and Environment Division of that municipality, an architect and two businessmen on suspicion of active and passive corruption, malfeasance, abuse of power and influence peddling.

On July 10 of the same year, the Public Prosecutor's Office brought charges against eight defendants and five companies, including two former Mayors of Espinho, Miguel Reis and Pinto Moreira, who would also be constituted as a defendant in this case, after being heard by the Porto Regional Department of Investigation and Criminal Action.

The former is accused of four crimes of passive corruption and five of malfeasance, and the latter is charged with two crimes of passive corruption, one of influence peddling and another of violation of urban planning rules.

Businessman Francisco Pessegueiro was charged with eight crimes of active corruption, one of influence peddling, five of malfeasance and two of violation of urban planning rules.

Businessmen João Rodrigues and Paulo Malafaia were charged with eight crimes of active corruption, one of influence peddling, five of malfeasance and two of violation of urban planning rules.

Three more defendants, who at the time held the position of division head in the municipality, and five companies were also charged with various economic and financial crimes.

Four defendants requested the opening of the trial phase in November 2023, the Porto Criminal Investigation Court (TIC) decided to bring all the defendants to trial, only reducing the number of crimes for one of the defendant companies.

Read Also: Vortex. Defendant acquitted in case of alleged violation of rules (Portuguese version)