Lawyer Orlando Figuera, who was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison four years ago for corrupting him by former Vice President of Angola Manuel Vicente in the scope of Operation Fizzhe was finally dismissed from the Public Prosecution Service.
The information was provided by Visão Magazine and confirmed by PÚBLICO. The decision was taken by the disciplinary department of the Supreme Council of the Public Prosecution two weeks ago. A judge can still appeal to the plenary session of this body and challenge his removal to the Supreme Administrative Court.
The delay in applying the ruling is due to the fact that the disciplinary procedures targeting the Public Prosecutor have been ongoing for more than six years, because the Public Prosecution chose to wait for the outcome of the criminal procedures. Only in December last year, after Confirmation of conviction By the Court of Appeal of Lisbon, which proceeded with the accusation, which proposes the removal of Orlando Figuera, the harshest disciplinary punishment of the judiciary. The judge has not yet served prison time due to the fact that his final conviction is under appeal in the Constitutional Court.
Orlando Figuera returned to the judiciary in February 2019, after being He was sentenced in December of the previous year On charges of corruption, money laundering, violating the secrets of justice and forgery. Since there is a rule in the Statute of the Public Prosecution Service that specifies the automatic suspension of prosecutors from “the day on which they are notified of the order fixing the day of trial for a premeditated offense committed in the exercise of their functions or punishable with a sentence of imprisonment of more than three years,” this is what actually happened, Orlando Figuera was unable to return to his duties.
🇧🇷[O magistrado] There has been, from that moment, a preventive suspension from jobs, under the provisions of the Statute of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (Article. Due date. For this reason, Orlando Figuera continued to receive a gross monthly salary of more than €5,600, which means About 3,500 euros netAccording to Orlando Figuera himself, he told PÚBLICO in 2019, when the unpaid leave he had enjoyed since September 2012 expired and he decided to return to the prosecution service.
