The judge considered the coercive measures demanded by the MP against those involved in Operation Influential to be disproportionate

Investigating judge Nuno Díaz Costa considered this Monday “manifestly disproportionate” the coercive measures requested by the Ministry of State (MP) for the accused detained in the investigation of the business of the lithium, hydrogen and data centers of Sines.

The order of the magistrate of the Central Criminal Court, issued this Monday, resulted in the release of the chief of staff of the Prime Minister, Vitor Escaria, the consultant Diogo Lacerda Machado, the friend of António Costa, the mayor of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas and Start. Campus administrators Afonso Salema and Ruy Oliveira Neves, detained since Tuesday.

Diogo Lacerda Machado was given a bail of 150 thousand euros and a ban on traveling abroad (with the surrender of his passport), and the latter measure was applied to Vitor Escaria, and the other three defendants were left only as a measure of coercion. Identity and Residence Card (TIR).

“It remains only to state that the coercive measures proposed by the prosecutor’s office, namely imprisonment, against the defendants Diogo Lacerda Machado and Vitor Escaria, are clearly disproportionate, especially in light of the punishment that is expected to be applied. for those, and not Here, in turn, general considerations or stereotypical formulas are valid,” says the decision to which Lusa had access.

The deputy defended preventive detention against the first two; bail of 200 thousand and 100 thousand euros for Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, respectively, as well as a ban on contact with the remaining defendants; as well as the suspension of the mandate, the ban on contact and the ban on entering municipal offices for Nuno Mascarenhas.

However, the TCIC judge’s decision emphasizes that “the risk of flight on the part of the accused Diogo Lacerda Machado is great and imminent” when it comes to his children living abroad and his professional ties to Guinea-Bissau, as well as Vitor Escaria. , “due to the ease he demonstrates in existing outside Portugal, there is a concrete danger of flight”, so he banned both of them from traveling abroad.

A consultant and former chief of staff to the prime minister faces “serious charges” of influence peddling. In relation to the administrators of Start Campus, evidence of abuse of influence and improper offering of benefits was assessed against the actions of these two latter defendants for food offered to the Ministers of Infrastructure and Environment João Galamba and Duarte Cordeiro, respectively. .

However, the evidence of corruption and malfeasance that the deputy pointed out to the defendant was not considered convincing. As for Mayor Nuno Mascarenhas, they say that “he is not accused of committing any criminal offense.”

There are a total of nine defendants in the case, including the Minister of Infrastructure João Galamba, the President of the Portuguese Environmental Agency Nuno Lacasta, lawyer, former Secretary of State for Justice and former PS representative João Thiago Silveira and company. Launch the campus.

The process is linked to lithium exploration in Montalegre and Boticas (both districts of Vila Real), to the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines, Setúbal, and to the Start Campus project for the construction of a Data Center in the industrial and logistics zone of Sines.

Prime Minister António Costa, who appears to have been involved in the matter, was the subject of an investigation launched by a member of the Supreme Court, a situation that forced him to resign and the President of the Republic to call early elections to the Supreme Court. March 10, 2024