Ex-Mayor Loureiro Faces Up to 8 Years in Landmark Portuguese Corruption Trial

The courtroom in Espinho has become the stage for what many jurists describe as the most consequential corruption trial since the days of Face Oculta. By asking for prison terms that cannot be suspended, the Public Prosecutor has pushed the "Ajuste Secreto" case into territory where reputations, political careers and even local-government procedures throughout Portugal could be rewritten.

Why this matters for local governance

For residents who follow municipal politics with the same passion usually reserved for football, the prospect of a former mayor and ex-vice-president of the Portuguese Football Federation spending as long as eight years behind bars is startling. The offences under debate—corruption, peculato, influence peddling, falsifying documents—strike at the heart of how town councils allocate contracts and manage public money. Aveiro, Porto and neighbouring municipalities together administer billions of euros each decade; if the court concurs with the prosecution, a precedent will be set that could embolden audit courts and oversight bodies from Braga to Faro.

How the investigation unfolded

The inquiry began in 2017 with dawn raids that swept up seven suspects, including Hermínio Loureiro, then a towering figure in centre-right politics. Over time the case ballooned to 65 defendants and more than 600 separate charges. Prosecutors allege that a network inside several councils rigged tenders, channelled public funds into party coffers and even disguised private building works as municipal projects. The file is so vast that it had to be split into themed blocks: first Oliveira de Azeméis, then Estarreja and, most recently, Gondomar. Each bundle contains invoices, intercepted calls and statements that investigators claim reveal a "methodical choreography" of illegal favours.

What the prosecutors said in court

During closing arguments this month, the lead prosecutor denounced what she called a "repetitive pattern of misconduct". She singled out five defendants—Loureiro, José Oliveira "Zito", ex-MP João Moura de Sá, businessman António Reis and civil servant Manuel Amorim—as the nucleus of the scheme. For Loureiro and Oliveira she demanded 7–8 years of effective imprisonment, while asking 6–7 years for the other three. According to the indictment, the group "operated across mandates and different legal regimes with the same self-serving objective", thereby justifying sanctions that cannot, under Portuguese penal rules, be converted into suspended sentences or community work.

Defence strategy and reaction

Hermínio Loureiro, who initially chose silence, eventually admitted to "some illegal decisions" taken across three decades of public service. Yet his lawyer Tiago Rodrigues Bastos insists those decisions lacked the crucial element of personal enrichment that defines criminal corruption. The defence argues that many disputed payments were cleared by municipal auditors and that any procedural missteps were "administrative lapses, not felonies". Privately, Loureiro’s camp points out his voluntary resignation from all football-related posts in 2017 as proof of good faith.

Broader implications for anti-corruption policy

Legal academics from the University of Coimbra say the case will test how far Portuguese courts are willing to go in punishing political patronage when no bribes can be traced directly to the defendants’ pockets. A conviction on the terms requested could strengthen upcoming reforms to the Public Procurement Code, which already requires real-time disclosure of sub-contracts. It could also pressure parties to impose stricter vetting on mayoral hopefuls, a topic that Lisbon lawmakers have so far avoided despite successive scandals in smaller municipalities.

What happens next

The three-judge panel will begin deliberations early in the new year after hearing any final clarifications. A verdict could arrive by spring, but sentencing of this magnitude often triggers appeals that keep the files moving between Espinho, Porto’s Relação court and, ultimately, the Supreme Court of Justice. Until then, municipal leaders across the country are quietly reviewing their contract archives, aware that the judgment delivered in one courtroom may soon echo through every parish council budget meeting.