Criticism increases as leaked wiretaps compromise former Socialist prime minister
In a week where leaked wiretaps from the Operation Influencer investigation hit the headlines – when the various defendants are still prohibited from consulting the evidence against them – Portugal’s public prosecutor’s office has been accused of behaving like the reviled PIDE secret police of the dictatorship years.
Rui Rio, former PSD leader and a man who has also has his run ins with the office led by the Attorney General, made this unflattering comparison after wiretaps that apparently ‘have nothing to do with Operation Influencer’ were nonetheless kept on record, and then leaked at a particularly sensitive moment, potentially causing reputational damage to Mr Costa just as he has his eyes on a top job in Brussels.
Talking to the new NOW channel, Rio said: “This is similar to what happened with the PIDE before the 25th of April (…) so now we hear ministers talking to their families, to secretaries of State and to the prime minister…! Do you want them to do that to the current government? I don’t want them to. Then why should I want them to do it to another government just because it’s not my party’s?! This is extremely serious in terms of what democracy is”, he considered.
“The Supreme Court of Justice decided that the part of the wiretaps that has no criminal relevance should not be destroyed. So let’s keep it there. It’s not for selling wiretaps! (…) There have to be rules”.
Earlier this week, on X/Twitter, Rui Rio recalled the days of the PIDE, where it was “normal for PIDE to invade the private lives of citizens for political purposes, purposes without any real criminal relevance.“
In the same post, the one-time mayor of Porto stated that he entered politics precisely to combat the habits of the Salazar regime.
Just over a month ago, Rio joined a hundred ‘prominent personalities’ in the Portuguese political and social context in a ‘manifesto for justice’, demanding reform in the sector.
The signatories consider recent investigations, like Operation Influencer and the corruption probe in Madeira have highlighted a “perverse” performance by the judiciary, various “flaws” in the sector; they point to slowness, breaches of judicial secrecy and serious abuses in criminal investigations.
Rui Rio himself was the target of house searches on suspicion of a scheme to pay salaries to PSD officials using funds from the Assembly of the Republic last year. The searches were splashed across the media: the whole episode sensationalised (again at what could have been a sensitive time for his party) – and since then, ‘nothing’ (from a media perspective). No follow up at all.
Meantime, justice minister Rita Júdice has admitted that she too is uncomfortable with the use of wiretaps in legal proceedings. The government wants to ‘reflect widely’ on their use as a means of proof, she has told Antena 1 radio station.
