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A French court has sentenced to four years in prison Arménio Pinto Martins, the owner of the truck involved in the accident that in March 2016 which resulted in the death of 12 Portuguese emigrants in Switzerland.

The court of large jurisdiction in Moulins, France, also condemned this Wednesday the driver Ricardo Pinheiro, now 21, was sentenced to three years in prison.

In the trial that began on Wednesday, the Public Prosecutor’s Office asked for four years’ imprisonment for each of the defendants, accused of aggravated negligent homicide.

In the closing arguments, Ricardo Pinheiro’s lawyer applied for a two-year sentence and the lawyer for Arménio Pinto asked for his acquittal.

The accident occurred on the evening of March 24, at the Estrada Centro Europa (National 79) in Montbeugny, Moulins. The van collided head-on with a lorry on the opposite side of the road. Only Ricardo Pinheiro, who made an ill-calculated overtaking, survived.

The group had left Romont, Switzerland, bound for Portugal to spend Easter and travelled in the overcrowded Renault Spinter, with exceeded its seating capacity, made available by Arménio Pinto Martins, which Ricardo Pinheiro agreed to drive.

Foreign citizens believed that they had a lawyer who would solve their problems with the residence permit in Portugal through the Gold Visas.

They were mainly Brazilians, South Africans and Chinese, and entrusted Maria Antonia Cameira with large sums of money, in the order of millions, to ensure the purchase of houses, each worth at least 500 thousand euros. But the lawyer, who has been in preventive custody since July last year, ended up with the money and is now accused by the Public Prosecution Office of crimes of qualified fraud and forgery of documents. In addition to the lawyer, the office he represented is also the defendant.

According to the District Attorney General of Lisbon (PGDL), the indictment indicates that, at least since 2014, in light of the gold visas, the defendant “drew up a plan, using a law firm, of which he was legal representative, which was to promote their legal services as well as the acquisition of real estate properties with them. ”

But the scheme went beyond the mere legal service. “As part of the plan, monetary amounts relating to real estate were obtained. Instead of carrying out the corresponding deeds and buying and selling, for which it was mandated, the defendant would make them his, forging information from the SEF, making passbooks and permanent certificates of the real estate, creating the impression with investors that progress with SEF was being made. At the time of arrest about 10 million euros through fraud in fraud had been made.

The lawyer even went to South Africa and China to contact prospective clients. “In order to publicize its alleged services in acquiring property and providing legal services in obtaining Gold visas. The defendant advertised on the Internet, made cooperation agreements with agencies and real estate agents and moved to several countries where he contacted potential clients, namely in South Africa and China. ”

The investigation was directed by the MP in the 8th section of the DIAP of Lisbon, with the support of the PJ, and if the defendants do not request the instruction will soon be for trial.

The defendant has been convicted in England and served six years in prison for misappropriating 312,000 euros from a client of law firms she ran in London. The money served, according to the British court, was to to pay expenses and finance the luxurious life of the Portuguese. She was tried in absentia in 2012 having fled to Lisbon before the conviction.

 

The National Republican Guard (GNR) said on Monday that up to Thursday, a total of 31 of the 1946 records of misconduct raised during the inspection of land requiring fuel management had been cancelled as owners cleared the land by May 31.

“The procedure for annulment of the case requires the monitoring of the places where commissions of administrative misconduct have been instituted before May 31,” said the GNR source, indicating that Santarém is the district with the most records of administrative misconduct were registered, with a total of 401 cases for non-compliance with the forest fuel management bands.

Without indicating where the 31 cancelled cases are located, the GNR also highlights the districts of Viseu (171), Leiria (162), Coimbra (157), Portalegre (147), Aveiro (139), Vila Real (116) and Guarda 110) as those who have more records of misconduct.

Of the 18 districts of Portugal, Beja is the one that registers the lowest infringements raised by May 31, followed by Évora (24), Bragança (32), Braga (39), Faro (43), Setúbal (46) and Viana do Castelo (50).

According to the GNR data, the Lisbon district has 83 records and Porto district had 59 administrative proceedings instituted.

Under the supervision of the fuel management bands, after the deadline of March 15 for private individuals to clean the land, from April 2 to May 31 of this year, the GNR surveyed 981 cases of misconduct directed at “owners, tenants, users or entities that, in any way, hold lands bordering on buildings located in rural spaces. ”

Of the total of 1,946 counter-administrative records filed by the GNR, between January 1 and May 31 of this year, 389 reports refer to infractions “in the population clusters located or confined with forest areas, and previously defined in the Municipal Forest Defense Plan (PMDFCI), [where] fuel management is required in an outer protection strip of a minimum width of not less than 100 meters “, and 371 cases concerning non-compliance with the criteria defined by the law for the management of fuel on surfaces .

In this context, 170 cases were also addressed to companies, of which 113 were in the road network, 16 were in the rail network, six in the transmission and distribution of very high voltage and high voltage electricity lines, 32 in the medium voltage power distribution lines and three in the natural gas transmission network, according to GNR data.

The Safe Village, Safe People Program, created this year in response to last year’s fires, is being impolemented in 600 villages in the country, with 310 places of refuge identified.

Silvério Teixeira, deputy chief of the retired PSP, was the first local security officer in a village in Portugal. Since April 9, he has been in charge of the security of the residents of Vale Florido, in Ansião.

The “Safe Village, Safe People” program already has 450 designated security officers.

The initiative, launched by the Ministry of Internal Administration, is being implemented by municipalities and parish councils, especially in places where the risk of fire is higher (189 municipalities and 1049 parishes), under the guidance of the National Authority for Civil Protection (ANPC), which developed a program implementation guide.

The guardians have been chosen from villagers. They are people of the land that everyone knows, able to mobilize neighbours, to guard against risky behaviour, to report in the event of approaching the flames and to take the reins of evacuation to a shelter or even to an extreme situation. This mission of great responsibility is a voluntary act.

At the moment, there are 600 clusters involved in the program. In addition to the designation of a local security officer, this initiative also includes the drafting of evacuation plans, the creation of collective refuges within the localities and the signalling of escape routes.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs reports that the “signalling necessary to identify evacuation routes and places of refuge” has begun to be distributed among the 189 municipalities with 1049 parishes with a higher risk of fire. The 650 thousand houses in those parishes will receive information with measures of self-protection against fires.

In addition to the appointment of security officials, some 250 villages already have an evacuation plan and 310 collective shelter sites have been identified. The ANPC and the mayors have opted for buildings of collective use, such as chapels or venues of local associations.

In the latest results just published Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008. New Zealand, Austria, Portugal and Denmark also sit in the top five most peaceful rankings. Syria remains the least peaceful country in the world, a position it has held for the past five years. Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq and Somalia comprise the remaining least peaceful countries.

Portugal dropped from 3^rd overall position to 4^th, but remains third place in Europe.

This is the twelfth edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness. This report presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to-date on trends in peace, its economic value, and how to develop peaceful societies.

The GPI covers 99.7% of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation.

The results of the 2018 GPI find that the global level of peace has deteriorated by 0.27% in the last year, marking the fourth successive year of deteriorations.

Spain recorded the fourth highest overall deterioration in peacefulness of any country, and the largest in the European region. It has dropped out of the 20 most peaceful countries, falling to 30th in the rankings, and is now ranked amongst the bottom half of the European region.

The deterioration in peacefulness in Spain has been driven by two trends: firstly, an increase in the terrorism impact indicator and secondly, a deterioration in the political environment owing to unrest over possible secession by the Catalonia region. 2017 saw a number of high profile terrorist attacks in Spain, most notably the August attack on the La Rambla pedestrian mall in Barcelona, which killed 14 people and injured over a hundred more.

According to the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 157-A / 2018, of October 27, the ANPC is in charge of managing the “Safe Village” and “Safe People” Programs. These programs aim to reinforce the security and the reaction capacity of the population to the rural fires, being structured according to two vectors:

1. Awareness-raising actions for the prevention of risk behaviour, development of self-protection measures and evacuation plans, in close coordination with local authorities (municipalities and parishes) and involving the population in their execution;

2. The establishment of structural measures to protect people, goods and buildings at the urban-forest interface, through the management of buffer zones and the implementation of strategic infrastructures, with the identification of critical points and places of refuge, in close articulation with the local authorities (municipality and parishes) and involving the populations in their execution;

To materialize both programs, awareness materials (leaflets, posters and audio and video spots) and support for actions (Program Implementation Support Guide) were produced, which are available on ANPC’s website.

The video spots are also available on ANPC’s official Youtube channel and the audio spots on ANPC’s official Soundcloud channel.

These materials are for dissemination and free use by all, especially the media, whom we invite, from now on, to make extensive use of them for the purpose of disseminating the measures and advice of the ANPC.

On 29^th May 2018 an Auto-protection Awareness Session was held in the small village of Cumeada located between Silves and Messines. This was one of the first sessions in the Algarve under governments “Aldeia Segura” e “Pessoas Seguras” (Safe Villages – Safe People) program.

The purpose of the session was to brief villagers on how to protect themselves should they be affected by a rural fire. It was attended by the Mayor of Silves and Head of the ANPC Faro District among others including Safe Communities Portugal.

The session covered: The sounding of church bells or other alarms in the event of a major fires approaching the village; the location of local high fire risk areas; creation of fire breaks and future ones planned; escape routes in the event of a fire; location of assembly points; familiarisation of fire escape route and assembly point signage; the identity of the local auto-protection fire agent and protection against smoke inhalation.

The ANPC have stated that similar sessions will be rolled out in HIGH RISK villages throughout the country organised by municipal councils.

These awareness sessions and plans are based on the lesson learned from the terrible fires last year that resulted in the loss of over 100 lives. Knowing what to do in an emergency can save lives and this is why it is important to attend such sessions if organized in your village. They will largely be in Portuguese but very easy to follow if a non-Portuguese speaker.

In the coming weeks similar seminars will be held in villages throughout the country in villages that have been identified as “high risk” mainly in the northern parts of the Algarve. It is therefore important to look out for information from the local camara as when and where these will be. If in doubt whether your village has been designate high risk consult with the local Junta da Freguesia.

One major development is the introduction of signage in high risk villages showing the escape routes from fires in the direction of assembly points.

Safe Communities Portugal will be at stand 49 at the Algarve International Fair and will have available more details on this topic as well as the leaflet in English on Safe villages – Safe People” published on 25^th May 2018.

 

The SEF – Foreigners and Borders Service have conducted a number of surveillance operations at dawn on May 24 in the Porto and Braga areas, which culminated in the detention of seven foreign nationals due to irregular stay in national territory.

These actions are aimed at investigating the activities of foreign citizens in Portuguese territory and to prevent aiding illegal immigration and related crimes.

In this operation 70 citizens, including 39 foreigners, were identified and seven were arrested who will now be presented to the court for the first interrogation and determination of measures for compulsory expulsion proceedings. Three foreign nationals were also notified to leave the national territory.

 

Due to the strike of the workers of the National Printing House (INCM), the entity responsible for the production, prossessing and delivery of Passports and Residence Permits, the levels of service of production and delivery of the same are registering delays.

SEF is making every effort with INCM to reduce any problems.

Priority will continue to be given to emergency situations, which must be reported at the counter where the request is made.

Published by SEF on 25th May 2018

 

The National Civil Protection Authority warns people that they may be approached by strangers who, posing as civil protection staff, who approach people informing them that they are going to be fined due to non-compliance with the legal obligations to clean rural lands of which they are owners.

The ANPC was informed of a situation that occurred in the Viana do Castelo district, where the motive in question asked a citizen to pay the amount of a fine by transfer to a NIB (bank account) by the end of that day, otherwise the fine would be doubled.

In view of this, the ANPC informs citizens that civil protection services do not impose fines for non-compliance with the legal obligations to clear the forest land. Any fraudulent attempt such as this should be reported immediately to the police authorities.