Maria de Fátima da Cunha Felgueiras Almeida (born April 21, 1954 in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

) is a

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politician. She is most known as former mayor of the

Felgueiras Felgueiras () is a municipality in Porto District, Portugal. The current mayor is Nuno Fonseca. There are two cities located in the municipality: Felgueiras (city status received on 13 July 1990) and Lixa. The population in 2011 was 58,065, in a ...

municipality, in northern

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Personal life

Fátima Felgueiras was born in

, then capital city of

, from Portuguese parents. When she was 4 years old, the family returned to Portugal and settled in

, northern Portugal. She studied in a secondary school of

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCWorld Heritage Sitesince 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved and a ...

and earned a degree in Germanic

Philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

from the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

. Involved in local politics, Fátima Felgueiras took over as mayor of Felgueiras in 1995. Fátima Felgueiras has a daughter, Sandra Felgueiras, who is a well-known television reporter and journalist of RTP public service television network.

Corruption allegations

She was placed under investigation after a series of anonymous letters addressed to Cunha Rodrigues at the public prosecutor's office. The police inquiry produced more than 120 volumes. The mayor of Felgueiras, Fátima Felgueiras, hurried through the streets of the small northwestern Portuguese city in the early afternoon of May 5, 2003. She was late for a funeral. But before she arrived at the cemetery, she took a phone call, returned home—and disappeared. The then 49-year-old fugitive has been charged with 30 counts of corruption, embezzlement, prevarication and abuse of power and was suspected of managing a US$1 million "saco azul" (blue bag) to pay for her own electoral propaganda,

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

office rent and phone bills, her new Audi, among others. Felgueiras faced a possible 25-year sentence, according to the Guimarães Appeals Court (Tribunal da Relação de Guimarães). Seventeen other Town Hall employees and private entrepreneurs were involved in the scandal. Police sources said the mayor escaped to

(through Madrid and São Paulo) just before authorities received the warrant issued by the court. After several months in Brazil, and being the owner of a Brazilian passport, Fátima Felgueiras returned home to be arrested and released in less than 24 hours. She was re-elected for the Felgueiras Town Hall in October 2005, as an independent.Fátima Felgueiras vai a julgamento acusada de 23 crimes
17 March 2006,

Diário de Notícias ''Diário de Notícias'' () is a Portuguese daily newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal. Established since 1864, the paper is considered a newspaper of record for Portugal. History and profile ''Diário de Notícias'' was first published in ...

The trial was set to start in February 2007 but the case didn't produce any effect so far.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Felgueiras, Fatima Living people 1954 births Socialist Party (Portugal) politicians Women mayors of places in Portugal Mayors of places in Portugal University of Coimbra alumni 20th-century Portuguese politicians 20th-century Portuguese women politicians 21st-century Portuguese politicians 21st-century Portuguese women politicians