The Assembly of the Republic confirmed this Friday the permission to waive the parliamentary immunity of the PSD MP Joaquim Pinto Moreira, adopting in the plenary session the opinion of the Commission on Transparency and the Statute of Deputies.
The unanimously approved opinion allows Joaquim Pinto Moreira to be charged and heard in connection with the “alleged practice” of crimes such as passive corruption and evasion.
Joaquim Pinto Moreira was present in the plenary when a vote was taken and the waiver of his parliamentary immunity was authorized, after which he was greeted by some colleagues from the Social Democratic bench, including Fernando Negrao and António Proa, before leaving the half-cycle.
According to the opinion, which the Lusa agency had access to and which had already been approved on Wednesday by the Commission on Transparency and the Status of Deputies, the Judicial Court of Comarque Porto requested permission from the Assembly of the Republic for PSD MP Joaquim Pinto Moreira to be “presented as an accused and interrogated as such”.
This refers to the alleged practice of crimes of passive corruption of political actors – “ultimately aggravated” if the advantage is “of great value” or “significantly large” – evasion, abuse of influence and abuse of power.
In accordance with the Constitution and the Statute of Deputies, the waiver of parliamentary immunity is mandatory “if there are strong indications of an intentional crime corresponding to a prison sentence the maximum term of which exceeds three years”, which occurs in three of the four mentioned crimes.
On January 30, when the request to waive immunity became known, the Social Democrat deputy announced that he would ask for the suspension of his mandate “after the removal of the parliamentary immunity and the subsequent constitution of the defendant.”
Pinto Moreira argued that this did not amount to “any admission of guilt” and justified his decision by saying that he did not have “the right to disrupt the normal functioning of the political work” of his party “and its top officials”.
The PSD MP then indicated that he was “fully interested in providing all the clarifications to be made within the framework of said investigation”, given that they would be necessary to prove his “complete innocence in the face of the alleged charges” brought against him.
The trial is linked to Operation Vortex, during which the residence of Joaquim Pinto Moreira, the former mayor of Espinho between 2009 and 2021, was raided and his computer and mobile phone were confiscated.
This operation led to the arrest of the then mayor of Espinho, Miguel Reis (PS), who had meanwhile resigned from his mandate, one of his officials and three businessmen on suspicion of active and passive corruption, evasion, abuse of office. powers and trade in influence.
Pinto Moreira was first elected as an MP in the 2022 legislative election, becoming vice president of the social democratic group led by Joaquim Miranda Sarmento after Luis Montenegro took over as SDP president.
The Social Democrat recently resigned as Vice President of the SDP Parliamentary Group and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Review after he was the target of a house search as part of Operation Whirlwind.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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