António Costa seeks to clear doubts raised by Operation Influencer
Five months since the case broke – bringing down an absolute majority Socialist government, and making way to a new executive of the centre-right – former prime minister António Costa is intent on ‘clearing his name’ and getting to the bottom of ‘suspicions’ raised by Operation Influencer.
He told journalists on the sidelines of yesterday’s swearing in ceremony of the new government that he has instructed his lawyer to submit a request to allow him to be heard “as quickly as possible” by the courts in order to “clarify any doubts” and any suspicions.
“I’ve appointed a lawyer and I’ve instructed the lawyer to submit a request today to the coordinator of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Supreme Court of Justice so that they can hear me as quickly as possible to clarify any doubts they have about the suspicion they have because there’s nothing worse than having a suspicion and it not being clarified,” he said.
Reiterating that he is “totally available to collaborate with the justice system”, Mr Costa said that, just as he said when he resigned, “anyone who is subject to public suspicion” like the one that exists about him “must preserve the institutions”.
Influencer is related to the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines, Setúbal, and the project to build a data centre in the industrial and logistics area of Sines by Start Campus, writes Lusa. The original stories also mentioned potential strings being pulled regarding lithium exploration in Montalegre. Since the initial flurry of allegations, newspaper articles and citing of ‘official suspects’, very little ‘publicly’ appears to have moved forwards. Indeed, there was a major ‘hiatus’ early on when a judge of criminal instruction released the five defendants on the lightest of bail terms – after days in preventive custody – saying he could see no signs of any kind of corruption. ND
Source material: LUSA
