The son of the President of the Republic, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, will be heard this Wednesday by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on the case of the twins treated at the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, via videoconference.
A response sent by his lawyers to the CPI, to which Lusa had access, stated that “Nuno Rebelo de Sousa will be at the CPI via videoconference on July 3 at 2:00 p.m.”
According to lawyers, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa “will completely call for silence”, arguing that “this is the right given by the Constitution and the law”.
The lawyers noted that “there is a complete coincidence of the object of this process [no qual Nuno Rebelo de Sousa é arguido] and the subject of the CPI”, and believe that there are “no possible questions whose answer would not be affected by this legal appeal”.
“It was meant to provide clarifications on the criminal investigation. In fact, there was no legal need to provide any clarifications there either, but they were provided. It is implied that this should not be done in parallel and simultaneous investigations, despite the fact that there was no interaction with either. Thank you, if you have already given consent to access to the clarifications provided there, everyone,” they added.
The lawyer for the head of state’s son told the investigative commission in June that he refused to give an explanation, but admitted that he would attend hearings “in the future.” In the same letter, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa did not refuse to be heard during the parliamentary investigation.
The new letter, addressed to the Assembly of the Republic, notes that the possibility of holding hearings via videoconference “was not included in the previous call” and that the Parliament was informed that Nuno Rebelo de Sousa will not attend the meeting in Portugal at a later date, “having commitments to professionals and family in Brazil, where he lives and works, and that he does not plan to come to Portugal in the near future.”
A vote is also scheduled for this Wednesday on the hearings of former ministers Augusto Santos Silva and Francisca Van Dunem, proposed by IL and Chega after the PS parliamentary group requested their postponement.
Last Friday, the president of the parliamentary commission of inquiry, Rui Paulo Sousa, said that this Wednesday the commission would also consider lifting professional secrecy and the possibility that the children’s mother’s lawyer would be heard behind closed doors.
Wilson Bicalyo was heard at the inquiry held in Parliament and made an initial statement but refused to answer any questions citing professional secrecy. The lawyer said he had approached the Bar Association for an opinion to lift the secrecy but was refused.
This position was criticised by the parties and the hearing was suspended before the end of the first participant’s questioning, Chegi, without being resumed.
On Tuesday, the representative of the twins’ mother submitted to the parliamentary commission of inquiry the opinion of the Portuguese Bar Association (OA) justifying his refusal to make statements to the Assembly of the Republic.
The case in point is the hospital treatment of two Portuguese-Brazilian children who received the drug Zolgensma, a two-million-euro drug designed to control the spread of spinal muscular atrophy, a neurodegenerative disease.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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