Prosecutor Rosario Teixeira says MP has no interest in overthrowing government and rejects allegations against Costa

Prosecutor Rosário Teixeira said on Thursday that the ministry “has no interest in overthrowing the government” and believes that former Prime Minister António Costa is not a suspect in the powerful man case.

“The Ministry of Public Affairs has no interest in overthrowing governments and it is not part of its function to create such political consequences,” a judge of the Public Ministry told the SIC Jornal da Noite newspaper, ensuring that “this did not happen” in any of the processes that led to the fall of the government of António Costa and the regional executive of Madeira.

“To put it simply, there were attempts to collect evidence, there were situations of collateral arrests, sometimes with the political authorities themselves,” which “led to consequences that were not desired, intended or requested by the prosecutor’s office itself,” he said.

In his opinion, the knowledge that investigations could have political consequences “should not limit the actions of the State Department.”

As for former Prime Minister António Costa, the prosecutor said he is not a suspect in the influential person case.

“If this citizen was heard not as an accused, but as a witness or complainant, then this person is not a suspect in this process, because if he is a suspect in this process, he cannot but be considered an accused,” he emphasized.

Asked whether the other 26 European Union member states had “privileged information” about the former prime minister’s status when António Costa was elected president of the European Council last week, Rosário Teixeira said no.

“Perhaps they got the legal reality in Portugal right,” he commented.

Asked to comment on the case of a public official who had been subject to wiretapping for four years, such as former Socialist minister João Galamba, in the same influential person trial, the judge said wiretapping “must be proportionate” and “depends on the specific situation.”

Rosario Teixeira gave the example of “a business that takes so long to implement” that “a long listening period is needed that can be interpolated.”

“These are complex and exceptional realities,” he concluded.

In an interview, the prosecutor denies that the prosecution service is an “undisciplined judicial system” and “with freedom of action” or that it has, as they say, “almost a political conscience.”

“The idea that the prosecutor’s office has any political allegiance is completely absurd. There is no collection of political expressions of will, it is absurd to attribute this to the prosecutor’s office,” he emphasized.

Faced with the Manifesto for Justice Reform, initially presented by 50 signatories from different walks of life and since then joined by another 50 figures, Rosario Teixeira said that it points to “some ideas that concern everyone,” such as slowness or the violation of judicial secrecy, but stressed that it does not point to solutions to these situations, leaving another criticism.

“It is desirable that this reform is not carried out against anyone, and this is a bit like how these manifestos are directed against the prosecutor’s office. The implementation of reform cannot be directed against anyone, it must be carried out with everyone,” he said.

The prosecutor’s judge also suggested that he had envisaged “an attempt to impose different models” and considered that these changes in the sense proposed by the manifesto would be a revolution, not a reform: “For example, an administratively appointed prosecutor’s office or a return to the times of the judge from instructions to the management of the investigation… this is a backward movement, it would be completely undesirable. In my opinion, the current model is ideal.”

Regarding the recent statements by Justice Minister Rita Alarcão Judice, who claimed that the next Attorney General of the Republic must “get his house in order”, Rosário Teixeira downplayed their significance, considering that decontextualized interpretations had been made.

“This means bringing him into line with the profile that the political authorities believe a prosecutor general should have,” he said, dismissing a possible future as the republic’s prosecutor general: “I am a man of action, this is not the case. I have not even thought of such a possibility.”

However, Rosario Teixeira admitted regarding the profile of Lucilia Gago’s successor: “I would like it to be someone from the Ministry of State.”