MP Miguel Arruda “frequently seen in parliament with large suitcase”
CHEGA MP Miguel Arruda has been made an official suspect in the bizarre investigation into his alleged theft of suitcases from carousels at Lisbon and Ponta Delgada airports.
Such is the weight of evidence apparent in this extraordinary story that CHEGA has made it clear the party will be withdrawing political confidence from Arruda if he doesn’t independently suspend his mandate.
Last night, SIC Notícias carried a report in which it said that CCTV images captured Arruda approaching an airport carousel, picking up two suitcases (his own and one of another passenger) and then entering nearby toilets.
He later emerged from those toilets with just one suitcase (his own, which was a large size). It is suspected that he placed the smaller suitcase inside his. And from this moment, he exited the airport as normal.
SIC adds that “the truth is that Miguel Arruda is often seen by fellow MPs with a large suitcase in parliament”.
When investigators searched his homes in Lisbon and São Miguel island, Azores, earlier this week they too emerged with at least three suitcases.
It is also understood that Arruda has “several smaller suitcases stored in his office in the Assembly of the Republic (parliament)”.
For now, doorstep interviews of Arruda have simply elicited the response that he is innocent, with his lawyer saying this investigation would never have been brought were his client not an MP.
With investigators still understood to be scanning video surveillance images since November (when the complaints of missing suitcases began), CHEGA leader André Ventura is due to meet with Arruda later today.
Ventura has already said from Washington, where he travelled to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration, that he is ‘astonished’ by the allegations, and, obviously, no MP – CHEGA or otherwise – should be above the law.
According to Lusa, Miguel Arruda cannot be arrested without authorisation from parliament, due to enjoying parliamentary immunity.
“MPs cannot be heard as declarants or as defendants without authorisation from the Assembly, and the decision to authorise is mandatory when there is strong evidence of the commission of a willful crime that carries a prison sentence with a maximum limit of more than 3 years”, says the news agency.
The crime of qualified theft, which this case appears to fall into, “is punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years or a fine of up to 600 days”, established in the Penal Code, which is why parliament is obliged to authorise the lifting of immunity, if / when the request is made.
Miguel Arruda, 40, was elected deputy for the Azores constituency in the last legislative elections, in which he was head of the list, adds Lusa.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
