The Commission for Transparency and Statute of Deputies on Tuesday approved the lifting of parliamentary immunity from PSD deputy Hugo Carneiro, who is accused and interrogated on suspicions related to the party’s financing.
The opinion was voted on behind closed doors at a meeting held on Tuesday and at the end the President of the Commission on Transparency and Statute of Deputies informed Lusa that it had been approved.
The report, which Lusa had access to, said the Braga District Judicial Court had asked parliament to lift Hugo Carneiro’s parliamentary immunity so that he could be recognized as an accused and questioned as such after investigating suspicions of non-compliance. with the Law on Financing of Political Parties.
The document states that the court’s request refers to the article of the law regarding sanctions, and to the clause that states that “leaders of political parties, individuals and administrators of legal entities who are personally involved in the misappropriation and receipt of prohibited funding are punishable by imprisonment for a term from one to three years.”
The issue of lifting immunity will now be discussed at the plenary meeting.
In a conversation with the committee, Deputy Hugo Carneiro did not object to the lifting of his parliamentary immunity and declared his “full readiness” to cooperate with justice.
This is a complaint to the prosecutor’s office regarding reports on the 2018 Festival of Europe event, in which the Office of Political Accounts and Finance (ECFP) blames the SDP.
The ECFP blames alleged irregularities in the reporting of the event on the deputy and then deputy secretary general, who bears financial responsibility, but Hugo Carneiro said in late September that the event was “entirely organized by the PPE parliamentary group.” and he himself did not participate in the organization.
In a conversation with reporters, the vice-president of the SDP board denied his involvement in financial crimes and said that he would open a criminal case against three members of the Accounts Chamber for calling his “good name” into question.
MEPs Paulo Rangel and José Manuel Fernandez also assured that the event was organized exclusively by the political group of the European People’s Party, to which the PSD belongs.
Last week, two elected officials asked the European Parliament to waive their parliamentary immunity, arguing that “it is in the interests of the organizers to fully clarify the weakly founded and false issues raised by the Organization.”
Both MPs also asked for these steps to be “quickly completed” and expressed their “full readiness to cooperate with justice.”
Paulo Rangel and José Manuel Fernández also emphasize that the initiative, included within the framework of their political activities in their respective constituencies, was paid for “with the available resources of the European Parliament, in strict compliance with the strict rules of the European Parliament and the use of which was duly authorized by the competent European authority and has already been verified by the European Parliament.”