The Secretary General of the SDP wrote this Thursday to the Attorney General of the Republic, considering that his party on Wednesday was the target of a legal operation of “great disproportion” between the actions committed and the object of the investigation.
On Wednesday, the Judicial Police (JP) mobilized about 100 inspectors and experts to search the home of former PSD President Rui Rio and the party’s national headquarters on suspicion of embezzlement and abuse of power.
In a letter addressed to Lucilia Gago, Hugo Soares refers to the “full accessibility” of the PSD “to ensure full cooperation with the investigation” and the party’s commitment to the “full defense of transparency”, expressing “the conviction that in the end the lawfulness of the whole situation will conclude”.
“Nevertheless, it is necessary to express our understanding that yesterday’s zeal [quarta-feira] The actions taken suffered from a large discrepancy between the actions carried out in response to the search warrant and the subject of the investigation, which, according to the published, already had interrogations of witnesses and those involved,” he emphasizes.
In his letter, the SDP Secretary General refuses to allow the set of actions that, according to him, were carried out during the searches, could fall “under the concept of protecting the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens, proportionate and adequate.”
“From our point of view and from the point of view of our concept of protecting the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens, it is not proportionate and inappropriate that the homes of citizens are disorganized without visible criteria, that their private life, cloning and seizure of their electronic devices, namely telephones, in as part of an investigation such as this one,” he clarifies.
The SDP General Secretary refers to the fact that these are “essential equipment for various personal, institutional and professional tasks of citizens who have been told that they will be deprived of these goods in a couple of months.”
“It is clear that the principles of necessity, adequacy and proportionality in terms of fundamental rights are not respected,” he adds.
In this case involving a former SDP leader, according to a CNN report that has been live since the searches began, there are suspicions of alleged misuse of public funds through Assembly of the Republic funds earmarked for parliamentary group consultations. and which will be used to pay party officials who will not serve in Parliament.
Speaking to reporters, Rui Rio downplayed these suspicions, feeling that they were only meant to “break the news” and said that he did not even understand what PJ was looking for, confirming that he was not presented as an argument.
“Payments are not illegal, these are all parties, why the SDP? If there was anything in my time, it was a reform in the sense of moralizing all this as much as possible, which is not so wrong, but moralizing, correcting,” he said.
Asked if this news will affect his image, Rio replied: “This is what they want, all this should affect my image, whether it will affect him or not, I don’t know, I have 30 years of public life, people already get to know me.”
“I’m out of politics, I don’t plan to return to politics, I’m fed up with politics, but sometimes … I had a friend, Dr. Miguel Veiga, who said: he, he works well, he is stung.” I’m so calm, why do they come to poke me?” he said.
Rui Rio stated that he had not spoken to the current leadership of the SDP, if only because he did not even have a cell phone seized during the searches.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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