Judge warns that use of prohibited evidence in the EDP/CMEC process could have consequences – Portugal

The Central Criminal Instruction Court (TCIC) refused to order the Public Prosecutor’s Office to remove the prohibited evidence from the EDP/CMEC prosecution, but warned that the inclusion of ’emails’ seized from defendants António Mexia and Manso Neto could have consequences.

According to this Monday’s order from the TCIC, published this Tuesday by Expresso and to which Lusa had access, the investigating judge Nuno Dias Costa refused the request from the defense of the accused João Conceição, administrator of REN and former consultant of former minister Manuel Pinho.

The request aimed to get the judge to alert the prosecutors in the case to the possible commission of crimes of disobedience, violation of correspondence and malfeasance if they used ’emails’.

At issue was the reported inclusion in the indictment – which should be known this week – of 3,277 ’emails’ seized from former EDP administrators António Mexia and João Manso Neto and whose seizure was annulled in October 2023 by a ruling establishing jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ).

With this ruling becoming final, the TCIC judge two weeks ago ordered “the destruction of any digital copy or printout” of the ’emails’.

Remembering that the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) is the holder of the criminal action and that it is not up to the court to order at this stage of the investigation that certain evidence be valued or devalued, the investigating judge — who was also recently linked to the Operation Influencer case – considered although a hypothetical inclusion of the aforementioned ’emails’ by prosecutors would not fall within the crime of disobedience, it left a warning.

“These reasons that lead to the defendant’s rejection do not imply that there are no consequences to be drawn from a possible non-compliance with judicial decisions made in these files, especially at an intra-procedural level (for example, if and when the process is in a judicial phase, or be it instruction or trial), but also extra-procedural”, reads the order.

Contacted by Lusa, João Conceição’s defense, led by lawyers Rui Patrício and Tiago Geraldo, declined to comment, after having warned on Saturday of the possibility of “reaching a breaking point in the normal functioning of the justice system” .

If the indictment of the EDP/CMEC process – under investigation for around 12 years and which concerns the Costs of Maintaining Contractual Equilibrium (CMEC) – contains ’emails’, said evidence still runs the risk of being declared null and void in a possible investigation phase requested by defendants or assistants.

The EDP/CMEC Case ended up leading in December 2022 to the indictment of former minister Manuel Pinho, his wife Alexandra Pinho, and former banker Ricardo Salgado for facts unrelated to the company and CMEC.

The investigation has since been separated and António Mexia and João Manso Neto are suspected of crimes of corruption and economic participation in business, while João Conceição is suspected of passive corruption.