MP calls for a suspended sentence for current and former nurses’ molestary. Will have diverted 63 thousand euros

The Public Prosecution Service (MP) called for a suspended penalty for the current nurses’ president, Luís Filipe Barreira, his predecessor, Ana Rita Cavaco, and 11 other defendants for thousands of euros from the professional association in 2016.

The Baston Luís Filipe Barreirathe ancient president Ana Rita Cavaco and 11 other defendants are under the fire of justice, because they allegedly have Deviated more than 63 thousand euros.

At issue are crimes of embezzlement and falsification of documents, in the context of a criminal process in which the improper payment of travel expenses that have never been made.

Luís Filipe Barreira was, in 2016, vice-president of the Board of Directors of the Order of Nurses (OE) and will have the accusation, improperly obtained 5,432.80 euros.

Ana Rita Cavaco fulfilled the first of two terms (2016-2023) as a spotlight and, according to the same source, will have earned without justification 10,361.16 euros.

Wanted to assign subsidies to themselves

In the final allegations of the trial, in the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, the prosecutor Julia Henriques considered that the acts practiced “have meaning” in a context in which it is common to exist “a facilitism” by those who “volunteer to the public service” in subjectively pay.

For the MP magistrate, the defendants wanted to collect the loss of income arising from the assumption of duties in the OE attributing to itself a subsidy, without discussing the general assembly of the Professional Associationsince the request for authorization would be public and “would fall bad” with the generality of nurses.

In the trial, only one of the defendants – Grace Machadoin 2016 vice president of the OE Board of Directors- confessed part of the imputed actswhile the rest, including Luís Filipe Barreira and Ana Rita Cavaco, denied having practiced any illegality.

The 13 defendants, all linked to the former Bastarian’s first term, are accused of the crimes of embezzlement and falsification of document, respectively, with respectively, with prison penalties up to five and eight years.

The prosecutor considered that the penalties to be applied by the court should be “just below the average limit” (four and two years and a half years) and suspended.

Julia Henriques argued that, although only Graça Machado has internalized the severity of the acts under suspicion, the fact that the alleged diversion of money has been made public contributes to the defendants to know that “they can be scrutinated” and abstain from repeating the scheme.

Even with the process, Luís Filipe Barreira was from the Order of Nurses on December 19, 2024.

The trial began on January 20 this year.