Dark Side Award # 5

The “runway crooked politician award” goes to Fátima Felgueiras.

This issue has been bothering me for quite some time. The reason I didn’t post anything about this earlier was mostly shame.

It really is a shame such a thing can happen here. In Portugal. In Europe. This century.

But I am digressing and you folks have no idea what am I talking about.

The whole problem started long ago when this woman was elected Mayor of the city of Felgueiras, in the northern part of our country. She was a crooked politician from the start, but a smart crook. She kept a parallel accounting to the municipality but she developed the city as much as she could. She and her ‘friends’ got rich in the process but the people got the things they wanted for their city. Two years ago however the police finally got evidence on her and she was arrested.

Sadly the judge set her free, claiming she could wait for trial in her home, in spite of the police allegations that she could both tamper with evidence and escape the country if she was left loose.

The next day this woman was in Rio de Janeiro, a city that is not a Portuguese territory since Brazil got it’s independence back in 1822.

After she escaped the judge ordered her to wait for trial in jail: everybody blamed the police for letting her go, although they couldn’t hold her against the judge’s decision.

Although our law already allows a court to judge someone absent, to prevent such cases from becoming endless cases, this case was not judged in her absence.

Things were quiet until a couple of months ago. This year we are having elections for all the municipalities.

To most people’s utter astonishment this woman’s attorney presented her as a candidate for Mayor of Felgueiras.

She was still in Rio, but there was no problem, our law says that judicial system and politics can not interfere with one another and although she was an escaped suspect she had not been convicted yet.

Suddenly she flies back to Europe and presents herself in court. And then and there happens the most astonishing part of this corruption tale: the judge sets her free while waiting for trial. Why? Well, she has double nationality, she is both Portuguese and Brazilian, so this judge said she was in her home in her other country so it can’t really be considered escaping justice.

This whole story spells corruption.

It shames us all. It shames our judicial system. It shames our politicians. And most of all it should shame the people of Felgueiras. But you wanna know something? She is going to win the elections again. The locals made huge demonstrations in her favor! Isn’t that against all morals? Isn’t that stupid?