Evidence gathering in Operation Influencer at issue
Right from the start critics howled “political coup” – and today stories emerging add weight to the theory that, at the very least, Portugal’s absolute majority Socialist government was brought down ‘incorrectly’.
ECO online explains that the defence team argues that ‘an insurmountable nullity’ has been committed, which is why they have sent a request to the investigating judge, Nuno Dias Costa.
If the judge agrees, the entire investigation could be rendered ‘ineffective’.
What it all boils down to is ‘procedure’ – in this case the collection of evidence, which should have been carried out by PJ judicial police, but which for reasons unclear was tasked to PSP (public security police).
This flaw was pointed out in the Court of Appeal’s ‘bombshell’ ruling of April 17, in which yet again, judges reviewing the evidence, found nothing compelling enough to inconvenience the lives of the various defendants.
As ECO points out, according to the law, when it comes to suspected crimes of corruption and malfeasance – as is purportedly the case here – it should be the PJ alone that collects the evidence.
Now it’s up to judge Nuno Dias Costa to decide what to do (agree with his colleagues, or perpetuate an investigation that has so far failed to persuade any of them).
If he chooses the former, it will really start to look like Portugal’s previous government was removed from power on very false pretences.
The defendants
Operation Influencer led at the time to the arrests of Vítor Escária (António Costa’s chief of staff), Diogo Lacerda Machado (António Costa’s consultant and friend), the directors of the Start Campus company Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, and the mayor of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas.
There are also other defendants, including the now former Minister of Infrastructure João Galamba, the former president of the Portuguese Environment Agency, Nuno Lacasta, the former PS spokesperson João Tiago Silveira and Start Campus.
The case relates to Start Campus’ project to build a data centre in the industrial and logistics zone of Sines, the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines, and lithium exploration in the district of Vila Real, in Montalegre and Boticas.
Early on in this drama, once the PM had tendered his resignation, he gave what many thought was a rather bizarre speech in which he stressed nothing untoward (or even criminal) had taken place. It was simply the way governments do business.
At the time, commentators were askance, suggesting the PM was “trying to condition justice”. If the defence arguments are upheld, it would seem he was simply trying to bring (certain) people to their senses.
