The decision, dated Tuesday, states that, "considering the legitimacy, the timeliness and the value of the costs", the appeals of the former mayor of Pedrógão Grande, Valdemar Alves, and the former councilor of this municipality, Bruno Gomes, were admitted, as well as the appeal of a couple requesting the reconstruction of their home.

The appeals are restricted to civil matters (claims for compensation, as it is not possible to appeal in criminal matters), and the appellate judge stated that, "in due course, the admissibility of the appeal filed" by Valdemar Alves to the Constitutional Court should be assessed.

"They are immediately submitted in the proceedings themselves and have a suspensive effect", reads the document.

On January 31, 2022, the Leiria Judicial Court convicted 14 defendants out of a total of 28, who were accused in the process related to the reconstruction of houses following the fires.

Valdemar Alves was sentenced to a single sentence of seven years in prison, having been proven to have committed 13 crimes of malfeasance by a holder of political office and 13 crimes of aggravated fraud, three of which were attempted.

The court of first instance sentenced former councilor Bruno Gomes to six years in prison for committing 11 crimes of malfeasance by a holder of political office and 13 crimes of aggravated fraud, three of which were attempted.

Of the remaining 26 defendants, who were applicants for the reconstruction of properties as if they were first homes, their relatives or employees of the Finance Department and the parish council, the Court sentenced 12 to prison terms (between one year and six months and two years and nine months), suspended in their execution. The crimes in question were forgery of documents and aggravated fraud, both consummated and attempted.

In the case of 11, this suspension was conditional on the monthly payment of 100 euros on account of the civil claim, for a period of four years.

The civil claims, to be paid jointly by Valdemar Alves, Bruno Gomes and 11 other defendants, were made by the Revita Fund (109,383.30 euros), the partnership União das Misericórdias Portuguesas/Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (185,233.33 euros) and the Portuguese Red Cross (111,579.01 euros).

Last February, the TRC ruled that the appeals of the former mayors were partially admissible and reduced the prison sentences of Valdemar Alves and Bruno Gomes to five and four years respectively, also suspending their execution, in both cases, for five years.

The two were convicted in the second instance of one crime of malfeasance and one crime of aggravated fraud, both in a continued form.

The TRC upheld the sentences applied in the first instance to the remaining defendants and ruled that the appeals filed by the civil plaintiffs União das Misericórdias Portuguesas and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian were partially admissible.

As a result, one of the applicants for the reconstruction of properties and the former mayors were ordered to pay around 43 thousand euros.

Another applicant and also Valdemar Alves and Bruno Gomes were ordered to pay the civil plaintiffs, as compensation for patrimonial damages caused and in a joint and several manner, around 150 thousand euros.

The TRC also ordered the payment to the plaintiffs by two more applicants and the former mayors of an amount in the order of 148 thousand euros.

The fires that broke out on June 17, 2017 in Pedrógão Grande, Leiria district, and spread to neighboring municipalities, caused 66 deaths and more than 250 injuries, seven of them serious, and destroyed half a thousand homes, 261 of which were permanent homes.

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