Francisco Moita Flores – one of the country’s most popular and insightful criminal commentators – has been accused of five crimes relating to his years as mayor of Santarém.
Say reports coming out this afternoon, the public prosecutor’s office has accused him of three crimes of prevarication and two of economic participation in business.
The crimes go back to the years 2009-2011.
Moita Flores was mayor of Santarém between 2005 and 2012.
Today’s news has not in fact specified names.
Official suspects were described as the former mayor of Santarém and a former employee.
But the dates leave no doubt as to which mayor the details relate to.
Texts say the alleged crimes concern building works at a local school.
A statement released by Évora DIAP (the department of investigation and penal action)said: “On the one hand, these works were not preceded by a contractual procedure, and on another, the former mayor signed documentation corresponding to a transfer of credits from the building company to a bank, in which he bound the municipality to pay two bills emitted by the builder, to the value of €300,000 and €200,000, without the costs in question corresponding to any responsibility, commitment or adjudicatory decision. This (was done) to viabilize payments to the building company as they could not be have been effected directly by the municipality”.
This case will now pass to what’s called the instruction phase for a judge to hear all parties and determine whether there is a case to answer.
Moita Flores started his professional life as a Biology teacher in the State secondary school system. He then moved on to the PJ judicial police, where he worked as an inspector, ultimately specialising in serious crime, armed robberies and homicides.
A brief return to the world of academia to complete a History degree, saw him returning to the PJ in 1992 in a directional capacity, involved in studying criminal movements.
It was in his quality as a PJ advisor that he began participating in ‘crime-watch type’ television programmes which changed the way the police related to journalists in this country.
Moita Flores entered politics in 2005 when he stood for, and won, the presidency of Santarém council.
Says Wikipedia, in 2009 he was honoured with the Order of Dom Infante Henrique.
