The defendant, a 29-year-old electrician, was charged in the court of São João Novo, in Porto, with starting the 62 fires in the Porto district.

The court proved that he was responsible for only four, but in a hearing for the production of evidence, the defendant had confirmed only starting three.

The remaining is what killed 75 dogs and cats in a mountainous area of Santo Tirso.

The court also excludes this fire from the list of those fired by the accused.

The same day the fire broke out in Valongo -which hit illegal animal shelters in the Agrela mountain range in Santo Tirso - six more fires broke out.

The collective president of judges explained, "the court is not here to choose fires".

The magistrate also recalled that the case of the Serra da Agrela is the subject of an autonomous process that runs in the Court of St. Tirso.

This subject is directly related to the mistreatment of animals.

The man, who was ordered by a criminal investigation judge to be arrested pre-emptively, was arrested by the Judicial Police on August 5, 2020, after starting a fire near the kartódromo de Baltar, in the municipality of Paredes, as revealed then the Judicial Police.

The indictment conveyed that the individual "was aware of the risks, but that did not prevent him from continuing a repeated, deliberate and prolonged activity in time, which can only be explained by an attitude of satisfaction for the damage and dangers caused".

The president of the collective of judges of São João Novo stated today that the defendant has "great propensity for the commission of these crimes, but is attributable", with 37% of the fires in Portugal are the responsibility of people attributable, that is, criminally responsible for their acts.

The defendant received an overall penalty of six years in prison - which corresponds to instalment sentences of four years in prison, one and a half years, two years and 10 months, and two more years and 10 months - for fires fired in Valongo and Paredes on July 12, 2020, on 29 of the same month, on August 4 and 5 of the month.

All the fires burned an overall 1.5 hectares.