The five arrested Tuesday afternoon were called to give statements after the morning was filled by the respective defense lawyers consulting the cases, the same source summarized.
The former mayor of Espinho, Miguel Reis, who announced his resignation today, was the second to be heard by the investigating judge after the afternoon began with the questioning of one of the three arrested businessmenexplained the source.
Miguel Reis began questioning around 4:30 p.m., with his lawyer, Nuno Brandão, leaving the TIC facilities after 9 p.m., confirming that his constituent’s hearing had ended shortly before.
At the moment, businessman Paulo Malafaia is being heard, another source reports in the process.
The head of the municipality’s Urban Planning Department, José Costa, and two other businessmen are also detained, so the coercive measures should not be determined until Friday.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Judicial Police (PJ) explained that these five people were detained after about two dozen searches and non-domestic searches, which targeted a local government’s services, its employees’ homes and several businesses with the headquarters in the municipalities of Espinho and Porto.
The judicial police operation, dubbed Vortex, was attended by magistrates from the Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP) Regional Porto, detectives and financial experts from the Northern Directorate, as well as computer experts from various structures of that police force.
“The investigation concerns real estate projects and associated permits, relating to multi-family housing and hotel units, involving urban interests of tens of millions of euros, processed for the benefit of certain economic actors,” explains the PJ.
Miguel Reis revealed in a statement to Lusa today that he would resign his term as mayor of Espinho.
“Following the steps taken in the context of the Vortex operation, I have taken the decision of my own free will to resign with immediate effect from the mandate for which I was elected in the Espinho City Council and, consequently, in the institutions where , for inherent functions, represented autarky. A resignation that extends to the functions he held in the different organizational levels of the Socialist Party,” the politician revealed.
Miguel Reis was elected mayor of Espinho by the PS in the 2021 municipal elections, with 40.23% of the vote, and was also the mayor of the PS de Espinho, having been re-elected to the position in October 2022.
Source: DN
