"Operation Babel has tarnished justice above all"

The mayor of Gaia, who leaves office on June 30, admitted this Monday that the Babel process, which led to the arrest of former vice-president Patrocínio Azevedo, tarnished the municipal project, but above all, tarnished justice.

“The issue [Babel case] tarnished the chamber, tarnished the municipal project, tarnished the president, tarnished the councilors, destroyed him [Patrocínio Azevedo], but above all, tarnished justice”, considered Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues at the end of the extraordinary meeting of the municipal executive that approved, with two votes against from the PSD, the management report and consolidated financial statements for 2024.

Operation Babel, related to the alleged falsification and violation of norms and instructions for urban licensing processes in Gaia, has 16 defendants, including Patrocínio Azevedo who, at the time of the process, was vice-president of the Vila Nova de Gaia Council and who, as a result, resigned from his position.

Patrocínio Azevedo, who spent around 23 months in preventive detention, was released in April , subject to periodic presentations to the authorities three times a week and prohibited from contacting the other defendants.

Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues said that this process tarnished justice because the former vice-president of the city council was imprisoned for 23 months for allegedly receiving a backpack with 100 thousand euros, which, halfway through the trial, it was realized that he had not received anything.

“Then he is sent home and nothing happens , so it is a stain on the path of this process and I think we all have to feel a small stain on our institutional structure and our system of power,” he said.

And, regarding justice, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, who was sentenced to loss of office for embezzlement , said that currently the country treats equally those who steal 10 or 20 million euros and those who go to the bakery in the council car.

“I have the feeling that my departure serves, firstly, to tell the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities and to tell the Government that it is important to legislate because in a country where justice allows itself to be manipulated by anonymous complaints and behind-the-scenes moves, it is not a mayor who is at stake, it is an entire democracy”, he stressed.

In his opinion, it is necessary to reflect on this because one day there will be someone in charge of these institutions who does not mind being called a thief because, perhaps, he is one and, therefore, has no shame. “I am ashamed to participate in a process in which the degradation of the institutions is evident”, he stressed.