Convicted fraudster, Duarte Lima, today lodged another appeal in an increasingly futile attempt to stay out of jail
The latest appeal is to the Constitutional Court to avoid starting a six-year prison sentence handed down in the BPN-Homeland case.
Three judges of the Constitutional Court already decided, on December 18, 2018, to reject a complaint lodged by Lima, thus confirming the earlier decision that the former politician was guilty as charged.
Taking this decision, Duarte Lima now has filed an appeal to the plenary of judges at the Constitutional Court to overturn the Court's earlier decision.
Duarte Lima first was sentenced in November 2014. He got a ten-year sentence for qualified fraud and money laundering in the BPN - Homeland case, related to the acquisition of land in Oeiras for the construction of the Portuguese Oncology Institute, involving a loan from BPN, much of which went missing.
Lima then went to the Court of Appeal of Lisbon, which, in April 2016, reduced his sentence to six years.
Since then, Lima, a lawyer by training, has filed several appeals and complaints to the Supreme Court of Justice and to the Constitutional Court, all of which have been unsuccessful.
