An Olhão ex-mayor and four former councillors finally are to be prosecuted for licensing a villa construction in clear contravention of local planning laws, leading to the owner benefitting financially.
Former mayor Franciso Leal and the Olhão councillors are accused of using their political office illegally to license a villa in Bias do Sul, near Fuseta.
Franciso Leal, Olhão mayor between 1993 and 2013, has been accused of misuse of power by the the Évora Criminal Investigation and Action Department, as have former councillors Luís Medeiros, Vítor Lopes, Eduardo Cruz and Gil Vicente da Conceição.
The villa owner received a license in 2004 in violation of Coastal Plan and, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, acting after an investigation had been completed by by the Judicial Police: the accused "acted knowing that they violated their duties as decision-makers with the utmost responsibility for the licensing of private works"... "with the sole purpose of benefiting the applicant."
Following a complaint lodged in 2009 with the Public Prosecutions Service by the citizens’ movement, ‘Somos Olhão,’ a public prosecutor's office procedure was opened which seems to have taken six years to conclude.
Francisco Leal is still involved in the socialist party, Vitor Lopes is a director of the Municipal Company Fesnima, and Eduardo Cruz is an acting PSD councilor in Olhão’s administration.
