The attention given by investigators to ‘anonymous complaints’ – particularly when made against high-ranking figures- has been called into question yet again today by the Manifesto of the 50, a group of former political heavyweights, constitutionalists and legal experts.
The incident concerns Judge Ivo Rosa – currently sitting in the Lisbon Court of Appeal – but in 2021 the judge in charge of analysing the criminal case against former prime minister José Sócrates.
Months before the judge announced his decision – sending shockwaves through the establishment, and later almost completely overruled by the Lisbon Court of Appeal – public prosecutors received an anonymous complaint suggesting possible crimes of corruption, theft and money-laundering.
According to SIC, the complaint was focused on Judge Rosa’s alleged ‘favouring José Sócrates’, who only now is being tried in a court of law, after years in which he has used every legal means possible to stay out of one.
But the fact that it was ‘anonymous’, and yet still accepted and taken on as an active investigation, is what has so riled the ‘Manifesto of the 50’, in this case including former Socialist government heavyweights Augusto Santos Silva and Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues.
The group is “demanding explanations” from the Attorney General’s Office.
“Any attempt to influence judges in forming their opinions and deciding independently and impartially, using investigations opened on the basis of anonymous complaints, is unacceptable,” say the figures, also including former ministers Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues (PS) and David Justino (PSD), lawyer António Garcia Pereira and constitutionalist Vital Moreira.
As it was, Judge Rosa was basically ‘hounded’ for three years: public prosecutors availed themselves of access into his tax affairs, bank accounts and cellphone data. And, at the end of it all, the decision was that there was no case to answer. The deputy attorney general cited “described inconsistencies”; the case was closed in March last year, and it will now be “destroyed in the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, after the deputy attorney general gave the order for it to remain confidential, without the possibility of access by the press”, writes SIC.
Sound a little fishy? Well, that is why the Manifesto of the 50 are so indignant. The group wants President Marcelo to get involved, to insist the Attorney General explains a great deal more.
As to the deference given to anonymous complaints, Judge Ivo Rosa certainly won’t be the first public servant to complain: Prime minister Luís Montenegro is still fielding issues due to the ‘anonymous complaint’ about his involvement with his family firm Spinumviva, and former Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos was the subject of an anonymous complaint (also later deemed to hold no water) before the last legislative elections.
Sources: LUSA/ SIC
