Borba/Accident: Postponed until October the start of the trial in the quarry collapse case

The start of the trial in the case of the collapse of a road to quarries in Borba, in the district of Évora, was postponed until October, due to the health of the collective’s president, one of the lawyers revealed today.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, Silvino Fernandes, defender of the president and vice-president of the Chamber of Borba and the municipality itself, indicated that the postponement was due to health reasons for the judge president of the panel that will judge the case.
In the notification from the Judicial Court of the District of Évora sent to the defendants, to which the Lusa agency had access today, it can be read that the previous dates are no longer in effect and new ones have been designated.
Thus, according to the document, the trial will no longer start next Wednesday, as was initially scheduled, and will move to October 3rd.
In addition to the first session, sessions were also scheduled for the 4th, 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 29th and 30th of October, as well as for the 5th, 6th, 13th, 14, 19, 20th and 21st. November, is added in the notification.
The trial, with six defendants in the ‘dock’, will take place in the main room of the Évora District Judicial Court building.
On the afternoon of November 19, 2018, a section of approximately 100 meters of Estrada Municipal 255 (EM255), between Borba and Vila Viçosa, collapsed due to the slide of a large volume of rocks, marble blocks and earth into the interior of two quarries.
The accident caused the death of two workers from a marble extraction company in the quarry that was active and three other men, occupants of two vehicles that were traveling on the section of road that collapsed and who fell into the water of the inactive quarry. .
In the case sent for trial, the mayor of Borba, António Anselmo, is accused of five counts of murder, while the vice-president of the municipality, Joaquim Espanhol, of three counts of murder by omission.
The company ALA de Almeida Limitada, which held the quarry’s exploration license and whose manager has already died, and the technical manager Paulo Alves were each accused of 10 crimes of violating safety rules.
In turn, employees of the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG) Bernardino Piteira and José Pereira were charged with two crimes of homicide by omission.
In parallel, the State took administrative action at the Beja Administrative and Fiscal Court to recover more than 1.6 million euros paid in compensation to the victims’ families.
The six defendants, together with Câmara de Borba and the three heiresses of the manager of the company ALA de Almeida Limitada, are those targeted in the administrative action brought by the State.
At least, the council and the mayors of Borba contested the action brought by the State and one of the arguments concerns the “prejudicial issue of this action in view of the pending criminal case”, considering that “the State does not have the right it invokes”.
The 19 family members and heirs of the five fatal victims of the collapse received compensation from the State, totaling around 1.6 million euros, whose transfer orders were completed in 2019.