Manuel Pinho sues Public Prosecutors who keep taking it away from him
Former Socialist economy minister Manuel Pinho is suing the Public Prosecutor (MP) in charge of the EDP case, Carlos Casimiro, and Judge Carlos Alexandre, following the latest seizure of his €26,000 a month pension.
Under house arrest since December 2021, Pinho has told State news agency Lusa of his “astonishment” over the reasons given for the new seizure.
“The seizure measure was approved by a judge (Carlos Alexandre) who was on shift on the eve of being assigned to another court and, even more coincidentally, the same judge who had ordered this seizure the previous two times, with the measure twice reversed by the Court of Appeal.
“In due course, my lawyers will file an appeal against the decision and a criminal complaint against those responsible for it,” he said.
According to Mr Pinho, this new seizure is due to his “supposedly being the only defendant in the EDP case who has accounts abroad and children who live outside the country”.
In a written statement sent to Lusa, Manuel Pinho called the process “an ignominy“.
The former minister recalled that the case – in which former EDP directors António Mexia and João Manso Neto are also defendants – “has been dragging on for 12 years” without an indictment – a situation for which he considers the prosecutor responsible for the enquiry (Carlos Alexandre) to be the “only one to blame”.
“It’s normal for a prosecutor who is the subject of disciplinary proceedings and a criminal complaint because of extremely serious homophobic behaviour in a civilised society to feel enraged and lose his sense of boundaries.
“What is not normal is for him to be allowed to use the justice system and the public purse to achieve personal revenge goals,” he said, alluding to the prosecutor’s suspicions of alleged homophobia against the previous judge in this case, Ivo Rosa.
The EDP case is related to the Contractual Equilibrium Maintenance Costs (CMEC) in which former managers António Mexia and Manso Neto are suspected of corruption and economic participation in a deal to maintain the excessive rents contract, in which, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, they corrupted Manuel Pinho and former Secretary of State for Energy Artur Trindade.
Economy Minister between 2005 – 2009, Manuel Pinho has already been charged with passive corruption, money laundering and tax fraud in the original case.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has also accused Mr Pinho’s wife, Alexandra Pinho, of money laundering and fraud, as well as the former chairman of BES, Ricardo Salgado, who is on trial for active corruption and money laundering.
Source: LUSA
