The SIRP Review Board states that SIS acted in an emergency without the suspicion of a crime, but with prior risk.

The Information and Security Service (SIS) acted as a matter of urgency to recover a computer with classified information, which was located outside the Ministry of Infrastructure, in a “prior risk” situation, without any suspicion of a crime.

This was the position of principle conveyed on Tuesday by two of the three members of the Supervisory Board of the Information System of the Portuguese Republic (CFSIRP), Constanza Urbano de Sousa (chair) and Mario Belo Morgado before the deputies of the parliamentary affairs committees. Constitutional and national defense.

The meeting, which took place behind closed doors in the Senate Hall of the Assembly of the Republic and was intended to investigate the activities of the SIS, with Frederico Pinheiro, a former assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure João Galamba, who, after being dismissed from his duties, entered the ministry and took a laptop with documents considered to be Portuguese the state.

According to representatives of the two committees contacted by Lusa, elements of the SIRP supervisory board claimed that the work of the SIS was part of its “collection and production of information” activities after the notification was received.

Since the practice of SIS uses information relevant to the security of the Portuguese State, in a case indicating a prior risk in terms of State security, for example, information contained in a computer that was seized outside the Ministry of Infrastructure, this justifies that a series of urgent measures.

From this point of view, SIS took risk-based actions after encountering a situation that posed a threat of disclosure of classified information.

Also, according to the same deputies, it was emphasized by CFSIRP that in various SIS contacts with Frederico Pinheiro, the former deputy, dismissed by Joao Galamba, he was accompanied by his lawyer.

On the other hand, in this case, also from the point of view of the CFSIRP, since there was no suspicion of a crime, this did not impose a decision to immediately transfer the case to the sphere of the judicial police or the PSP.

In other words, it was simply a matter of asking Federico Pinheiro to return the documents in the logic of risk prevention as part of the operational decision of the services.

At the meeting, Bloco de Esquerda showed signs of abuse of power by the “secretas” to elements of the CFSIRP. And the clarifications put forward by the CFSIRP did not convince the deputies from the PSD and the Liberal Initiative.

According to opposition MPs present at the meeting, a “legal divergence” remained with the SIRP supervisory board, and it was stressed that, according to the law, “the intelligence services are responsible for ensuring (…) the production of the necessary information. to maintaining internal and external security”, not including the actions to seize the laptop of former assistant Joao Galamba in this definition. A point of view with which PS disagreed.

Last Wednesday, the SIRP Supervisory Board said in a statement that the elements it collected “do not allow us to conclude” that SIS took illegal steps to seize the laptop of former Deputy Minister Joao Galamba.

“The collected elements do not allow us to conclude on the illegal actions of the SIS, especially any violation of rights, freedoms and guarantees,” said Joaquim Ponte, Constanza Urbano de Souza and Mario Belo Morgado, who make up the CFSIRP.

CFSIRP states that “there is no indication that any police action was taken by the SIS in recovering the computer in question” and that “everything points to the fact that the computer was handed over voluntarily to those who owned it on the public road” and , he emphasizes, “therefore, outside the context of their place of residence and without the use of any coercive or legally prohibited means.”

SIS delivered the computer on the same day it was received from “CEGER, the body responsible for public electronic security and the prevention of loss or inappropriate dissemination of information,” adds the SIRP Supervisory Board.

In a communiqué, CFSIRP confirms that it has conducted this investigation “immediately and on its own initiative” in order to “obtain the elements necessary to carry out its functions,” said Infrastructure Deputy Minister Joao Galamba, who was exonerated last week.

According to news published in the media, Federico Pinheiro, after being informed of his rehabilitation, had to enter the premises of the ministry to collect a laptop that contained confidential information related to issues raised in the commission of inquiry, the political guardianship of TAP.

Later, the former MP was the target of complaints of physical abuse and the theft of a laptop at the Ministry of Infrastructure, and controversy intensified when the Information and Security Service (SIS) intervened in the restoration of this equipment.