Appeal court judges reject public prosecutors’ appeal against bail terms
Lisbon appeal court judges have delivered another major slapdown to public prosecutors pushing Operation Influencer – the case that brought down Portugal’s absolute majority Socialist government.
In considering the appeal, lodged by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, against bail terms delivered five months ago, judges once again suggested there are no strong (or even weak) indications of the trafficking of influences.
Say reports, it is (another) “heavy defeat” for investigators who have already weathered withering criticism over the whole case – not least the ‘damning paragraph’ at the end of the initial statement that led to the resignation of prime minister António Costa, and which has effectively stymied his political future.
But it is not ‘just a defeat’ in that the appeal has been rejected: the prohibitions on two defendants – businessman Diogo Lacerda Machado and the prime minister’s former chief of staff Vítor Escária – to leave the country have been lifted. Both men now are free to come and go as they please, and are bound by the lightest of bail terms (known in Portugal as TIR, standing for Term of Identity and Residence, and essentially meaning that they must continue residing at their current address).
Reactions to this news will come quickly, not least because of the time it has taken to ‘pronounce’ on the suspicions that public prosecutors have on the actions of the former prime minister.
The speech the prime minister gave following his resignation may now start ringing bells in people’s memories. His message at the time was basically that political leaders had simply been ‘conducting business in the interests of the country’, and that this was how things worked.
