Miguel Pinto Luz is former deputy mayor of Cascais
Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, said today that he was “completely calm” about the searches at Cascais Town Hall, asking that “justice be allowed to work” because “scrutiny is healthy”.
“I’ve been in public life for 20 years, I’m completely used to this scrutiny, it’s healthy, let’s let justice work,” Pinto Luz told journalists in a short answer on the steps of parliament.
The former deputy mayor of Cascais also said he is “completely calm” about what may lie behind the searches.
According to reports, suspicions that led to yesterday’s swoop relate to a factory that produced surgical masks during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has intimated that crimes of passive and active corruption, prevarication and abuse of power could be at stake.
PJ police arrived at Cascais Town Hall on Wednesday morning, leaving around 3.30pm.
Mayor Carlos Carreiras has said he was not surprised by the searches: they stemmed from a report drawn up by the Court of Auditors following inspections of the factory.
He also said that Cascais city council had contested the report because it considered that “there were no irregularities”.
Carreiras insists this is “what will be ascertained” from yesterday’s searches.
Carreiras has a “clear conscience” and claims to be the only person who could be held responsible for this affair, as all other councillors were ‘working from home’ during the pandemic.
He also revealed that, in addition to the town hall, the PJ has been searching computer resources in the São José Building – where the municipality’s Urban Planning services operate – in Cascais Centre and in the municipal company that managed the communication process related to the masks.
In June 2020, Cascais launched its own production of personal protective surgical masks for the population, using equipment from China, which also supplies other municipalities.
On Wednesday, PJ police also collected documents from the PSD headquarters in Lisbon as part of a case related to the party’s presidential campaign, which also includes the municipal company Cascais Próxima.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, there are no defendants in this case and the investigation is being held in secret.
Source material: LUSA
