The former secretary general of the Information System of the Portuguese Republic (SIRP), Julio Pereira, died this Friday at the age of 71, two of his friends and a work colleague confirmed to Lusa.
Julio Pereira led the SIRP for 12 years, from 2005 to 2017, and entered government as Secretary of State for National Defense in the first socialist government under António Guterres.
Prosecutor Judge Julio Alberto Carneiro Pereira also served in the Macau government, where he served for 10 years, as an adviser to the undersecretary for administration, director of the Administration and Civil Service and administrator of the Macau Pension Fund. Fonda, and also served as diplomatic advisor to the Governor of Macau from 1986 to 1989.
The former head of the “secret” was the director of operations of the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) between 1997 and 2000 before rising to the top of SIRP.
Julio Pereira was born in Montalegre, Vila Real district, graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra and studied in the Chinese capital Beijing, where he took an intensive course in language and culture. He had a master’s degree in Chinese studies and spoke Chinese.
After leaving the head of the intelligence services, Julio Pereira returned to the Supreme Court as deputy attorney general.
Between 2001 and 2003 he was also director of the defunct Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).
Julio Pereira has been an advocate of “secret” access to communications metadata and eavesdropping capabilities in the fight against terrorism.
In an interview he gave to Expresso in 2018, when asked if he was a member of Freemasonry, he replied that they had already tried to “take him on a visit”, but the organization had not mobilized him.