Vale e Azevedo sentenced to ten years in prison

**Pedro Silva** Tue Jul 02, 2013 12:33 pm

My friends, this was taken from Público newspaper:

http://www.publico.pt/sociedade/noticia/vale-e-azevedo-condenado-a-dez-anos-de-prisao-1598968

Vale e Azevedo sentenced to ten years in prison

Former president of Benfica appropriated over four million resulting from the transfer of players from the club.

João Vale e Azevedo was sentenced on Tuesday to ten years in prison for misappropriating more than four million from the coffers of Benfica, resulting from the transfer of players between 1998 and 2000.

In the judgment read at 3. Criminal court of Lisbon, the panel of judges chaired by José Barata considered João Vale e Azevedo, president of Benfica between November 1997 and October 2000, guilty of the crime of money laundering, document forgery, breach of trust and embezzlement.

All the documentary evidence was proven in court hearings, the judges considered to Vale e Azevedo who acted "with intent" and benefited from the lack of "control and surveillance" in club "misappropriate funds for his own benefit" .

This process were concerned the transfer of British footballers Gary Charles and Scott Minto, the Brazilian Amaral and Moroccan Tahar El Khalej to the club of Light. The judgment further provides that the former leaderof Benfica repay in full the money that is appropriated these business, including interest, making a total of about seven million.

The lawyer Vale e Azevedo, Luisa Cruz, announced the exit of the courtroom that will appeal this decision to the Portuguese courts and international courts.

Extradited to Portugal on 13 November 2012, Vale e Azevedo is serving a sentence in the Prison Carregueira in Sintra, once it has been established the legal height of 11 and a half years in prison in connection with the Ovchinnikov / Euroárea, Dantas da Cunha and Ribafria.