On Tuesday, BE announced it would file a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office to assess the legal framework for SIS’s computer recovery activities from the Department of Infrastructure, while Chega and IL are calling on the prime minister to draw policy conclusions.
Speaking to reporters in the Assembly of the Republic, Left Bloc (BE) parliamentary leader Pedro Filipe Soares called Tuesday’s hearing of Deputy Secretary of State Prime Minister António Mendons Mendez “another shameful episode.” .
“The government insists on giving the country half-truths, willful omissions and, in fact, trying to make the whole country look stupid. This is unacceptable, this is incomprehensible,” he defended.
Accusing the executive branch of trying to “preserve the series” that the country is already “fed up and tired”, Pedro Filipe Soares emphasized that “no member of the government can justify legal coverage of the actions of the Security Information Service (SIS)” On the night of April 26 .
“From which we can draw only one conclusion: the actions of the CCC are illegal, this happened outside the law, the legal framework that guides the actions of the CCC,” he said.
In this context, the leader of the BE parliament believes that “the only consequence that should be made” in the rule of law is to ask the question “who controls the ‘secrets'”.
“Our answer is simple and clear: the Prosecutor General’s Office (GPO) will have to launch an investigation to check the legal framework in which the SIS operated, and together with the GPO we will file a complaint to continue this investigation,” he said, adding that this complaint will be filed “ In the next few days”.
In turn, Chega leader Andre Ventura said the party would once again ask that Infrastructure Minister João Galamba be heard before the TAP commission of inquiry, saying it was “the last opportunity” for the ruler to “tell the truth about how, who and why”. advised him to resort to SIS.”
“In any case, we will also inform today the chairman of the commission of inquiry that the statements of Minister Joao Galamba must be related to criminal purposes, since these are lies with 90%, 95% or 99% certainty given under oath. this commission of inquiry,” he said.
For Chega, “it is of the utmost importance that this commission does not stop its work until Joao Galamba tells the truth” and that “his statements are sent to the prosecutor’s office for appropriate action.”
Ventura also insisted that Galamba did not have the “conditions of political power” to continue as a minister and called on Prime Minister António Costa to fire him before the end of today.
President of the Liberal Initiative Rui Rocha stressed that on Tuesday it became clear that between the versions of Joao Galamba and Antonio Mendonza Mendes regarding a telephone conversation between them on the night of April 26, “there is an obvious discrepancy.”
“This discrepancy is due to the fact that Joao Galamba says that António Mendonza Mendez told him to involve the secret services. Mendonsa Mendez today does not confirm this version of events,” he stressed.
Therefore, Rui Rocha believed that there are “two members of the government who say different things, that is, one of them misses the truth.”
“The decision as to which of the two is not telling the truth is up to the prime minister and depends on political judgment. The President of the Republic recently addressed the Prime Minister – today he must make a decision,” he stressed.
If the person who did not tell the truth is João Galamba, said Rui Rocha, there will also be a “criminal examination” because he lied to the commission of inquiry “in which the failure to tell the truth is one’s own regime, which entails criminal consequences.”