MP is unable, for now, to constitute defendants as PSD deputies being investigated for corruption and fraud. Newton contested end of immunity

Tutti-Frutti Case: Transparency and Statute of Deputies Commission unanimously decided to return to the court the letter requesting the waiver of parliamentary immunity for Luís Newton, Carlos Eduardo Reis and Margarida Saavedra. At issue is a challenge from the president of the Estrela council, in Lisbon, due to the fact that the judge did not indicate the “temporality” and “factuality” of the suspicions that fall on the deputies.

Parliament decided to return to the Court the request to waive immunity for PSD deputies Luís Newton, Carlos Eduardo Reis and Margarida Saavedra, investigated in the Tutti Frutti case for crimes such as corruption, embezzlement and fraud. Therefore, for now, no one will be able to be heard and accused, as the Public Prosecutor’s Office intended.

At issue, CNN Portugal knows, is an objection made by the deputy and president of the Estrela Parish Council, Luís Newton, who alleges that there is a lack of data in the judge’s request to waive parliamentary immunity. These data have to do with the fact that the letter from the Central Criminal Court does not indicate the “temporality” and “factuality” of the suspicions, in the document it sent to parliament.

Faced with this complaint, the deputies who make up the Commission for Transparency and Statute of Deputies decided, last Thursday, May 2nd, and unanimously, to return the letter to the Central Court of Criminal Instruction and maintain, for a longer period of time, immunity parliamentarian to the three Social Democrats.

According to a parliamentary source, it was the deputy Isabel Moreira who wrote this new request to the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon. When contacted, the socialist stressed that she “does not comment on meetings behind closed doors” in the Assembly of the Republic, but confirmed that a final opinion regarding the immunity of the three deputies has not yet been decided.

Although it was only Luís Newton who presented this objection, according to what CNN Portugal found, it will have effects on the other two deputies targeted for investigation and request for waiver of parliamentary immunity to be accused: Carlos Eduardo Reis and Margarida Saavedra .

For prosecutors from the Public Ministry who are investigating the Tutti-Frutti case, Newton is suspected of two crimes of passive corruption and malfeasance. Carlos Eduardo Reis is indicted for two crimes of corruption, one of influence peddling and one of malfeasance. And Margarida Saavedra is being investigated for the crime of qualified fraud.

According to the law that regulates the statutes of deputies, those elected to Parliament cannot be heard as defendants without authorization from the Assembly of the Republic, which is mandatory when there is strong evidence of committing an intentional crime that carries a prison sentence whose limit maximum is more than 3 years – which is the case.

This decision follows a request signed by judge Jorge de Melo, the same person responsible for the alleged corruption case in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, which entered the AR on April 18th. In that letter, as CNN stated at the time, it was stated that the MP “believes that it is important for the investigation to take statements” from the three Social Democratic deputies as “defendants”.

PSD internal investigation sent to the National Commission

At the same time, the PSD’s National Jurisdiction Council (CJN) recently completed a report on the internal investigation requested by Luís Montenegro regarding “the terms under which Lisbon’s municipal candidates for the 2017 elections were chosen” – one of the central themes of the process Tutti Frutti.

This report, according to José Matos Correia, president of the CJN, will be sent “in the next few days” to the National Political Commission, which will decide what consequences will be drawn from this internal investigation, ordered shortly after Montenegro was elected president of the PSD.

About a year ago, TVI and CNN Portugal released a series of reports that exposed the existence of numerous wiretaps and surveillance operations associated with alleged collaboration schemes between the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party.

Described by the Judiciary Police as a regime pact, the case began with the investigation of several mayors and senior PSD leaders, later expanding to include the socialist leadership in the Lisbon City Council in 2017. During this period, Fernando Medina is accused of having established a secret agreement with PSD figures, six months before the local elections. The objective of this agreement would be to allow the PS to present “weak candidates” (a term used by Sérgio Azevedo in one of the wiretaps), to ensure the PSD’s victory in certain parish councils.

Sérgio Azevedo, who became vice-president of the PSD Parliamentary Group, has already been named a defendant and other names mentioned in the investigation were also notified by the Public Ministry to meet the same fate.