Defense in Operation Influencer requests nullity of the test and could put the process at risk

According to the request presented on Tuesday, reported by CNN Portugal and to which Lusa had access, the participation of the Public Security Police (PSP) in the investigation by the Public Ministry (MP) is invoked, when the law provides for crimes associated with the case fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Judicial Police.

“The Judiciary Police is the only criminal police body competent to carry out any steps and investigations relating to investigations in which the investigation of crimes” of corruption, influence peddling and malfeasance is at stake, according to the document, which is supported in the Criminal Investigation Organization Law (LOIC).

The request addressed to the Central Criminal Instruction Court (TCIC) therefore alleges that “the MP cannot delegate to the PSP” the practice of acts of investigation of crimes that fall within the sphere of the PJ and recalls that, in relation to Afonso Salema, “all the evidence collected during the investigation was collected by an incompetent criminal police body”.

The defense understands that, as it is not in accordance with what the law provides, the MP’s act of “delegation of competence is invalid” and also could not have been validated by an investigating judge when authorization was required to carry out telephone tapping.

In this sense, the defense, in charge of lawyer Pedro Duro, requests “that the irremediable nullity of the order that gives the Public Security Police the responsibility of carrying out any steps and investigations relating to the present investigation and all the evidence” presented be declared. in the process, which could affect all defendants and suspects, including former Prime Minister António Costa.

The previous legislature was interrupted following the dismissal of António Costa from the position of prime minister, after it was revealed that he was the target of an investigation launched in the MP by the Supreme Court of Justice after a certificate was extracted from the criminal case Operation Influencer .

Operation Influencer at the time led to the arrest of Vítor Escária (António Costa’s chief of staff), Diogo Lacerda Machado (consultant and friend of António Costa), the administrators of the company Start Campus Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, and the president of the Chamber de Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas, who were released after judicial interrogation.

There are also other defendants, including the 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 is related to the project to build a data center in the industrial and logistics area of ​​Sines by Start Campus, the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines, and the exploration of lithium in the district of Vila Real, in Montalegre and Boticas.