The Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), Lucilia Gago, said she “does not favor the cult of image” and prefers discretion to “vanity”, in her first interview in six years in office this Monday, RTP.
Lucilia Gago took “full responsibility” for the paragraph that led to António Costa’s dismissal.
“This paragraph was drafted jointly by me and the press service. I am solely responsible for its inclusion and dissemination. The absence of this reference was incomprehensible. In the course of an operation that included searches and operations in the official residence of the Prime Minister, we could not mention that after the mention of suspects in the process, a process occurred that pointed to a certain and determined protagonist of the Prime Minister.”
The PGR also acknowledges that the dismissal of the former prime minister was a “personal decision” and that the prosecutor’s office has no right to make a political assessment.
“The MP has done his job and he has nothing more to worry about – he doesn’t need to do that,” he said.
He adds that “nobody said that Antonio Costa was accused of committing a crime, so if what was said was true, it could be illegal.”
Lucilia Gago says no one was treated differently. “Different treatment? Citizens should be treated equally,” he says. He adds that it is impossible to want citizens to be treated equally before the law and want “differential treatment for the prime minister.”
However, the PGR does not consider the case of António Costa closed, stating that “the investigation is ongoing.”
“The former prime minister was not considered an accused when he was heard. If the investigation was not closed, it was because something was in the way,” he says.
Lucilia Gago believes that she is not obliged to apologise if the case is archived.
“I don’t owe you an apology. [se for arquivado]not at all. There is no one with a special status,” he said.
PGR denies that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa interfered with PGR’s statement on Costa and that this led to his dismissal. “PR had no influence on the statement. Not a single point.”
The republic’s attorney general also spoke of a “temporal coincidence” between the start of the investigation into the Portuguese-Brazilian twins and the searches carried out as part of Operation Influential Person, calling the prosecutor’s actions “Machiavellian”.
The GRR will be heard in Parliament, but it is proposed that the hearings take place after the completion of the MP’s annual report.
Regarding the Justice Minister’s statements, she explains that “they were serious”, stating that this means “there was a loss of confidence in the leadership”.
He also claims that there is an organised campaign against him, “involving a group of people who bear responsibility in the life of the nation.”
As for João Galamba, the PGR claims that the wiretapping of telephone conversations continued for four years in an “undesirable and uncommon” manner, but if it happened to the former minister, it was because it was considered appropriate to continue to wiretap him.
“Proceed to continue [das escutas] “It just means that it was realized during the process that it was very important to continue listening to him,” he said.
On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Rosário Teixeira denied the suspicions against António Costa in Operation Influential Person. “If this citizen was not heard as an accused, but as a witness or complainant, then he is not a suspect in this process,” he said.