Miguel Taveira Arruda / Facebook
Former deputy Miguel Arruda
Miguel Arruda was accused of 20 completed crimes of qualified theft and another attempted theft. His wife was also accused of using property that she knew had been stolen.
Former Chega deputy Miguel Arruda was accused by the Public Ministry (MP) of 21 crimes of qualified theft for allegedly stealing several suitcases at Lisbon airport, between October 2024 and January 2025.
According to the indictment dated December 11th, to which Lusa had access this Thursday, Miguel Arruda’s wife was in turn accused of a crime of receiving goods, for having presumably enjoyed clothing and other goods that she would know that they had been stolen by her husband.
Miguel Arruda, 41 years old, was elected deputy to the Assembly of the Republic by Chega in March 2024, became non-registered deputy after being named a defendant in January 2025 and, when the case became known, he denied committing the crimes.
Of the 21 crimes of qualified theft of which he is accused, 20 are completed and one is attempted.
For the MP, the former elected member of the Azores circle took advantage of the fact that he traveled weekly between Ponta Delgada, where he lived, and Lisbon, where he worked, during a low-traffic schedule at Humberto Delgado Airport to divert, in at least eight days, more than a dozen suitcases other people from the baggage claim belts on your and other flights.
On another three days, he also went through the baggage claim area looking for other people’s bags, but did not find any unattended.
On January 21, 2025, it was intercepted by the PSP and was no longer able toas was customary, leaving TVDE airport towards home or Parliament.
The value of the contents of the suitcases that Miguel Arruda allegedly appropriated was not, in most cases, ascertained, but only two of them contained clothing, footwear and bags from luxury brands valued globally at almost 12 thousand euros.
According to the accusation, some of the articles were offered by the then deputy to the woman and others offered for sale by this on the digital platform Vintedincluding the address of the Assembly of the Republic, in Lisbon.
Only in Miguel Arruda’s office in Parliament were the PSP seized, on January 27, 2025, six suitcases and a backpack apparently belonging to unknown people.
In the couple’s homes in Ponta Delgada and Lisbon, almost 30 articles belonging to strangersincluding a laptop.
Miguel Arruda, who, like his wife, is free subject to an identity and residence agreement, is not a deputy in the current legislature.
