Daniela Martins reportedly has questions of her own
The mother of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins at the centre of the €4 million favoritism ‘scandal’ that has been grinding on for months is to come face-to-face with MPs in a fortnight’s time – and is reportedly planning to present some questions of her own.
Daniela Martins and the seemingly preferential treatment given to her sick babies became a national talking point following a television exposé last year.
At the time, the inference was that President Marcelo had ‘pulled strings’ at the behest of his son, Nuno, who lives in Brazil.
But since then, President Marcelo’s involvement has been minimised to the extent that the Supreme Tribunal has refused a judge’s request to investigate him any further. Not so investigations into the actions of other parties, namely Nuno Rebelo de Sousa (likely to be made an official suspect) and former Secretary of State for Health António Lacerda Sales (who already is).
On Friday, Daniela Martins heard that she too is to face MPs’ questions on June 21. She has reportedly been ‘summoned to appear in parliament’ to give ‘explanations’.
Talking to State broadcaster RTP, Daniela Martinsstressed that she is not afraid of being made a defendant in the case and means to ask questions “to those responsible for turning this investigation into a political issue on the eve of elections.
“I intend to go (to parliament) if [the twins] are stable”, she told her interviewer. “As I am their sole carer, I need them to be in good health”.
But, she went on, “why did they involve me in this totally political story? How could they expose my daughters in this way?”.
These are the two leading questions Martins intends to ask her inquisitors.
As far as the twins’ mother is concerned, her requests for medical treatment for her daughters were “always public and the girls had access to what they were entitled to by law” – bearing in mind their dual nationality had been ‘sorted’ by the time they were seen by Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital with a view to accessing the ‘miracle’ drug for their condition (spinal muscular atrophy), which cost the Portuguese State around €4 million.
As for any kind of relationship with President Marcelo, his son, or anyone else involved in the case, Daniela Martins said: “I have never spoken to Nuno. I met his wife…”
Martins has already denied ‘asking politicians for help’ to get her children’s medicine. She said the girls’ situation may have reached Nuno Rebelo de Sousa “through a friend or through Instagram”.
She admits that she did have the impression that “a request” might have been made on her children’s behalf. (In the original television exposé, viewers are led to believe she most certainly knew a request had been made).
This weekend, President Marcelo has repeated that he “won’t say anymore” about this case.
He has already addressed the country; been recorded during a discussion with foreign journalists, while last week searches of various State and private institutions went ahead.
For the time being, only former Secretary of State António Lacerda Sales is under suspicion for ‘crimes of abuse of power’.
This does not mean that President Marcelo is exempt from being brought into the proceedings: Carlos Melo Alves, a specialist in penal law, has told Antena 1, that “if new evidence comes to light (…) it is always possible to reopen any case that is pending against a citizen (…) but, at the moment, there is no evidence to implicate him”.
