Lacerda Machado’s lawyer says the judge’s decision will ‘put an end to the prosecutor’s misconceptions’

The lawyer of Diogo Lacerda Machado said this Monday that the decision of the investigating judge in the case of lithium, hydrogen and the Sines data center “will put an end to the delusions of the prosecutor’s office” (MP).

“I am satisfied with the decision of the investigating judge. This decision will put an end to the misconceptions of the deputy,” Manuel Magalhães e Silva told reporters after the investigative judge finished using coercive measures against the five detainees. within the process, and everyone was free.

Magalhães e Silva said the process should “disgrace” parliamentary magistrates.

The defendant, Diogo Lacerda Machado, a lawyer, consultant and friend of the Prime Minister, was required to post bail in the amount of 150 thousand euros within 15 days and not travel abroad, depositing his passport with the court within 15 days. 24 hours.

Asked if this enforcement measure meant that “the mountain gave birth to a mouse,” Magalhães e Silva replied: “I’m not sure it was a mouse, I have the impression that it was an ant, it was much smaller.”

For the lawyer, this Monday’s decision is evidence of the incompetence of the prosecutor’s office.

“From the moment an MP outrages the country for a whole week, the government falls, there are very strong charges of various crimes and serious crimes against several people, and then it all ends, there is influence peddling and there is an undue advantage,” he said. confirming that the deputy should have “a long time ago achieved consequences.”

Magalhães e Silva also believes that “above all, there are serious errors in the organization and functioning of the Parliament, and there are still no instructions or indications from the Office of the Attorney General to return the Parliament to a model that is truly guaranteed and effective.”

“There is one thing that is absolutely indisputable. It is impossible to have the rule of law and a strong rule of law if there is not a strong and autonomous prosecutor’s office,” he said, arguing that he does not understand six-night arrests and “this show-off context.”

Magalhães e Silva also said that the decision of the investigating judge “should embarrass, first of all, the judges of the prosecutor’s office, who, with the evidence they had, allowed themselves to carry out these investigations.”

Former chief of staff to the Prime Minister Vitor Escaria, Sines mayor Nuno Mascarenhas and Start Campus administrators Rui Oliveira Neves and Afonso Salema were also released.

There are nine defendants in total, including Infrastructure Minister João Galamba, who has since resigned from his position, Portuguese Environmental Agency President Nuno Lacasta, lawyer and former PS representative João Thiago Silveira and the Start campus. company.

The targets of the process are the lithium exploration concessions of Montalegre and Boticas, both in the Vila Real region; a project for the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines, Setubal, as well as a project for the construction of a data center in the industrial and logistics zone of Sines by Start Campus.

According to the Office of the Prosecutor (PO), crimes related to malfeasance, active and passive corruption of political officials and influence peddling may be at risk.

Prime Minister António Costa, who is the subject of an investigation by a Supreme Court deputy after being named by suspects as having interfered with unlocking procedures, resigned on Tuesday, while the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, then announced the calling of early legislative elections authorities as of March 10, 2024.