Flamboyant magistrate, Orlando Figueira, has been sentenced to six years and eight months in prison in a court ruling resulting from Operation Fizz.
Figueira was convicted of taking bribes from the former vice-president of Angola, Manuel Vicente.
Co-accused, Armindo Pires was acquitted and lawyer, Paulo Blanco, was sentenced to four years and four months, suspended.
The court was satisfied that Figueira had received bribes from Manuel Vicente, the former vice president of Angola, to shelve lawsuits that had been lodged against Vicente in Portuguese courts.
The sentence is a longer penalty than was requested by the prosecution which asked for five-years, suspended, for Figueira. The same penalty was requested for João Blanco, accused of being an intermediary between Figueira and Vicente.
Orlando Figueira was in custody for more than a year and then allowed out under house arrest. Visible shaken, he said to the media that he was "stunned by the decision" and that he will file an appeal and a criminal complaint against the three judges for denial of justice.
Judge Alfredo Costa said that the court did not accept the two defendants' explanations, given during more than 60 court sessions, and that some of the justifications given by Figueira were, "deprived of any reasonableness."
The court criticized Figueira's case planning and said that the arguments the defendant had put forward to rebut charges had altered through the course of the trial.
Figueira also has difficulty in explaining his bank account in Andorra, denying it existed until it was brought up by co-accused, Paulo Blanco.
According to the judges, it also was clear that Manuel Vicente, the former president of Angolan state oil company, Sonangol, and former vice president of Angola, indeed was the owner of Portmill Limited and Portmill Lda, and that they found it strange that Orlando Figueira did not pursue an investigation into the provenance of the €3.8 million used to purchase an apartment in the Estoril-Sol condominium.
Manuel Vicente was suspected of paying around €760,000 to Orlando Figueira to whom he also offered a job as legal adviser to the Banco Privado Atlântico in Angola. These actions were in exchange for Figueira shelving cases in which Vicente was the accused party, namely in the acquisition of the luxury Estoril property.
The case against Manuel Vicente was separated from Operation Fizz and has been sent to Angola 'for consideration.'
The Attorney General of Angola already has informed the Portuguese Public Prosecutor's Office that Vincente will be available to answer charges, but not until five years after the end of his mandate, which pushes any court date back to 2022 as Vicente ended his term of office in September 2017.
Manuel Vicente, "still benefits from the regime of material and procedural immunities," established in the Angolan Constitution.
The Angolan Public Ministry reminded Portugal of an existing bilateral agreement and stated that Angola, "has all the conditions to ensure the proper administration of justice, should the case in question be transmitted to it or delegated by the Portuguese State."
There also is an amnesty clause that could be used but only after Vincente is found guilty of a crime.
The Angolan Public Ministry also said that Vicente would not be arrested nor would he be placed under any sort of house arrest. It is unlikely that Vicente will ever answer to a court for his behaviour.
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