Mariana Mortagua asks the PIU to clarify the structure of the investigation, the scope and duration of Operation Influential Man

The BE Coordinator considered on Thursday that the explanations of the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) regarding the involvement of the former prime minister in Operation Influential Man were insufficient and asked for clarification of the scope of the investigation, scope and duration.

“Explanations from the GGR regarding the involvement of the former Prime Minister [António Costa] in Operation Influencer turned out to be insufficient. Now it is even more necessary to clarify the scope of the investigation, its scope and duration,” defended Mariana Mortagua in a message published on the social network “X” (formerly Twitter).

According to the leader of the bloc, before appointing “the next GGR, it is necessary to discuss their profile and the state of the prosecutor’s office.”

This reaction from the BE coordinator came a day after the decision of the Lisbon Court of Appeal became known, which rejected the appeal of the prosecutor’s office in the Operation Influencer process, reduced the coercive measures of the accused to the conditions of person and residence and realized that there were no signs of a crime.

The work of the previous legislature was interrupted after the resignation of António Costa, after it was revealed that he was the subject of an investigation launched into the parliament by the Supreme Court after a certificate of Operation Influential Man was extracted from a criminal case.

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, accepted the resignation and two days later announced to the country the dissolution of parliament and the calling of elections, held on March 10, which brought victory to the Democratic Alliance coalition, which led to a joint PSD/CDS-PP/PPM.

Operation Influential Man at the time led to the arrest of Vitor Escaria (Chief of Staff to António Costa), Diogo Lacerda Machado (consultant and friend of António Costa), Start Campus administrators Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, as well as Chamber of Sines President Nuno Mascarenhas, who were released after judicial questioning.

There are other defendants, including the now former Minister of Infrastructure João Galamba, the former President of the Portuguese Environmental Agency Nuno Lacasta, the former PS representative João Thiago Silveira and Start Campus.

The case relates to a data center project in the industrial and logistics area of ​​Sines near the Start Campus, the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines and lithium exploration in the Vila Real area, in Montalegre and Botica.