BFF-50 Twelve face trial over Portugal 2017 fires: prosecutors

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ZCZC

BFF-50

PORTUGAL-FIRE-CRIME

Twelve face trial over Portugal 2017 fires: prosecutors

LISBON, Sept 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Twelve people including three commanders
of Portugal’s civil protection agency will stand trial over the country’s
worst ever wildfires which claimed 64 lives in June 2017, prosecutors said
Thursday.

The accused, who face charges of negligent homicide, also include three
local officials and three employees of a company in charge of the maintenance
of a road where some 50 people died the blaze in the central Leiria region,
the local prosecutor’s office said.

BSS/AFP/RY/1815 hrs