Judge rejects defense motion of former Start Campus CEO in influencer case

The Criminal Investigative Judge in the Influential Person case rejected the motion to declare null and void filed by defendant Afonso Salema due to the fact that the DOJ turned to PSP rather than PJ during the investigation phase.

In a ruling to which the Lusa agency had access, the judge of the Central Court of Criminal Investigation, Nuno Díaz Costa, “recognized as unfounded the argument of invalidity put forward by the defendant Afonso Salema,” considering further that the “assessment of the alleged unconstitutionality” also refers to the defense of the former CEO of Start Campus.

Afonso Salema’s defense asked the judge to declare “irreparably invalid” the prosecutor’s decision, which made PSP “responsible for carrying out any steps and investigations” related to the investigation of the “Influential Person” and “all evidence subsequently presented to the court.” records,” classifying such evidence as “fruit of a poisoned tree.”

In this regard, the defense argued that the SP is the “sole competent criminal police authority” to conduct any actions and investigations related to investigations of crimes such as corruption and malfeasance, backing this claim with the Law on the Organization of Criminal Investigations (LOIC). ).

This argument was not accepted by the TCIC judge, who countered in his ruling that “strictly speaking, a deputy’s ruling does not constitute an act of delegation of powers to a criminal police authority, in this case the PSP.”

“On the contrary, the deputy stated that, in addition to leading the investigation, he himself will provide, on his own initiative, the impetus and development of various evidentiary measures, and also that with regard to measures that can be determined, PSP agents (…) will act as criminal police authority (CPO) to specifically implement these measures,” says the judge.

In this regard, the TCIC judge added: “In other words, the MP not only did not proceed in this manner to delegate powers to the PSP, but also made it clear that future delegations of powers to such a criminal police body would be intended to assist in the implementation of specific measures,” according to with the Criminal Procedure Code.

“Since the holder of the criminal case (MP) did not delegate the powers to investigate the PSP – on the contrary, the impetus and development of measures for collecting evidence occurred on the initiative of the deputy – then in this case there was no room for deviation from the regime of delegation of powers provided for in the CIP to the criminal police authorities on criminal issues investigations,” the magistrate concluded.

In this sense, Judge Nuno Díaz Costa rejected the motion for nullity presented by lawyer Pedro Duro.

The work of the previous legislature was interrupted by the dismissal of António Costa as prime minister after it was revealed that he was the subject of an investigation launched into the parliament by the Supreme Court after a certificate was extracted from a criminal case. Operation Influential Man.

Operation Influential Man led to the arrest of Vitor Escaria (Chief of Staff to Antonio Costa), Diogo Lacerda Machado (consultant and friend of Antonio Costa), Start Campus administrators Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, and the President of the Chamber of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas, who were released after judicial questioning.

There are other defendants, including former infrastructure minister João Galamba, former Portuguese Environment Agency president Nuno Lacasta, former PS representative João Thiago Silveira and Start Campus.

The case relates to a data center project in the industrial and logistics area of ​​Sines near the Start Campus, the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines and lithium exploration in the Vila Real area, in Montalegre and Botica.