The President of the Assembly of the Republic said on Thursday that the Supreme Court (STJ) must quickly, before the elections, clarify the criminal situation of the prime minister, stressing that the case marked the beginning of a political crisis.
“This is a very serious matter and it is very important that it is cleared up as quickly as possible. I believe that we have the right to ask the STJ to promptly conduct an investigation,” said Augusto Santos Silva.
This position was defended by the former Minister of State and Foreign Affairs in an interview with RTP3 after he was asked about the trial that led to the dismissal of António Costa as Prime Minister.
Last week we learned that a criminal investigation is underway against the Prime Minister in the Supreme Court because, says a statement from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the suspects invoked the name and authority of the Prime Minister to unblock procedures. This precipitated a crisis: the resignation of the Prime Minister, which entailed political consequences of this statement; then the President of the Republic realized that this dismissal implied the dissolution of the Assembly of the Republic and the calling of elections,” began Augusto Santos Silva.
The President of the Assembly of the Republic then noted that this process with the participation of António Costa continues from October 17 until March 10, the day of the legislative elections, “will last almost five months.”
“Five months is a period of time which I think is more than sufficient for the investigation to be completed and for all Portuguese to know – from the only source they should know, which is justice – what really happened and is any responsibility of the prime minister,” he said.
Augusto Santos Silva said that the Portuguese are wondering and they need to clarify what are the facts, what is the evidence and what are the responsibilities of the Prime Minister in this case.
“I think the courts have all the conditions to inform us – only the courts can inform us – in time so that people understand and can appreciate what happened,” he emphasized, before referring to “mistakes accumulated by the prosecutor’s office.” when in the last few years.
“Representing defendants in cases that subsequently do not develop – in some cases there is no charge, in others there is a charge, but people are acquitted in the first instance – it is likely that the composition of the accused itself is contrary to public opinion,” this does not mean that there is reasonable suspicion “, – he said.
When confronted with the position of the President of the Union of Magistrates of the Ministry of State that the Prime Minister did not need to resign over the matter, Augusto Santos Silva regarded it as cynical and criticized the actions of the Ministry of State.
“I respect the Union of Prosecutors in its trade union functions, but I do not accept that it is a trade union and not a prosecutor. [Geral da República, Lucília Gago] “or, as she understands, to be a representative of a government ministry and to act publicly as if they were heads of a government ministry,” the former Socialist minister said, before also expressing concerns about the risks of the policy being sued.
“There is an attitude among some judicial and judicial officials that political activity, because it is political, is inherently suspect. And therefore, it ends up tending to criminalize political and governmental actions. headquarters issues that are political or, in extreme cases, administrative in nature,” he warned.
In this interview, the President of the Assembly of the Republic also criticized the existence of a “serious abuse” of the use of wiretapping techniques in investigations, pointing out that it is a method that in many cases allows conversations to be “decontextualized” and that it greatly violates confidentiality and, equally, causes “temptation to stop” to investigate.
According to Augusto Santos Silva, in the very early stages of investigative processes, “serious” measures are used, such as house searches, “such as trawling.”
Regarding the so-called “influence operation”, Augusto Santos Silva, as President of the Assembly of the Republic, where the legislative power is located, apologized to the President of the Chamber of Sines, who was detained for six days and was released. innocently, without any suspicion of committing a crime.
“I’m very sad about this, with the consequences for the country, but I’m also very unhappy,” he added.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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