The Liberal Initiative (IL) hopes that the Under Secretary of State to the Prime Minister will check with the TAP Commission of Inquiry whether he has spoken to the Minister of Infrastructure to offer contact with information services.
“I want finally António Mendonza Mendez to come to explain to the country whether the conversation that Joao Galamba is talking about existed,” Rui Rocha told reporters at the entrance to the IL Executive Committee this Sunday in Porto. , about the events of April 26, the day when the Assistant Minister took the office computer from the premises of the Ministry of Infrastructures and the information services were activated.
The liberal leader also wants Mendonza Mendez to clarify on Tuesday the content of the conversation with Joao Galamba, what direction he gave him and when he told the prime minister that the conversation took place.
In his opinion, it would be “very surprising” that someone who is part of the Prime Minister’s office and works directly with him did not inform him of the existence and content of the conversation with Joao Galamba.
“It seems to me that it would be, to put it mildly, surprising if the assistant secretary of state did not inform the prime minister about the existence of this conversation,” he stressed.
João Galamba said at a parliamentary commission of inquiry hearing that the person who told him on April 26 to contact the security services was António Mendonça Mendez.
Although Mendonsa Mendez wanted to clarify the situation in the country, Rui Rocha foresees “new versions” of the facts.
“Because every time a minister or member of the government of António Costa speaks, we have a new version, we know another person who was involved, we know another conversation that we did not know about, and therefore what I could predict, that’s all. ,” he added.
This hearing was requested by the Liberal Initiative and the subject is the intervention of the Under Secretary of State to the Prime Minister “in the seizure of computer equipment in the possession of the former Under Secretary of Infrastructure, the Security Information Service (SIS). )”.
On Thursday, the prime minister said SIS’s move to recover a computer seized from the Department of Infrastructure did not require his permission and was not the result of a suggestion by his assistant secretary of state.
These statements are contained in António Costa’s responses, accessed by the Luz agency, to a PSD request with fifteen questions about the activities of the Security Information Service (SIS) following the return of a laptop seized by Frederico Pinheiro, former Assistant Minister of Infrastructure, on the night of 26 April.
After the incidents that night between the minister’s office staff and Frederico Pinheiro, opposing theories emerged publicly, as well as information that the government should provide to a parliamentary commission investigating the political tutelage of the TAR leadership.