The Court of Aveiro sentenced four and a half years in prison, with suspended sentence, a man accused of setting fire to a forest near a cantonation in 2024. The rapid intervention of the popular prevented the spread of the flames, which consumed only two square meters.
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22/10/2026
by
Lusa
O Court of Aveiro today sentenced a man accused of setting fire to a forest of eucalyptus and pine trees, next to a cantonation where three families lived.
During the reading of the judgment, the judge president said that the court was convinced that the defendant practiced the facts imputed to him.
The man was thus convicted of the practice of a forest fire crime, in the sentence of four and a half years in prison, suspended in his execution for five years.
“It was proved that you intentionally set fire, knowing that in doing so it could consume both the forest and the people and the goods of the people who lived there (...) If things hadn’t gone as you did, you could be here answering for homicide,” the judge said.
During the trial, the defendant denied having set the fire, but the judge said that the court “was not convinced by its version”.
The magistrate also explained that the court decided to suspend the sentence, taking into account the temporal distance of the facts and the absence of illicit practices since then, in addition to the professional and family integration of the defendant.
The case occurred on July 7, 2024, about 15:30.
According to the accusation, the defendant set fire to a forest of eucalyptus and pine trees in Nossa Senhora de Fátima, next to a cantonamento where three families lived.
The fire was sighted by popular people who lived in the cantoning and quenched the flames, which consumed an area of two square meters of forest.