President of the TAR Commission of Inquiry will punish those responsible for disclosing confidential information

The chairman of the investigating commission of the PTP considered this Thursday that the disclosure of confidential information to the media is an “attack on the heart of democracy” that deserves exemplary punishment from the perpetrators.

“I think this is an attack on the very heart of democracy. These are the things that make us think that not all of us are doing what we should be doing for the good and public interest of our country. what happened, identify the perpetrators and punish them in an exemplary manner, even for the public example that can be set,” said the chairman of the TAP investigation commission, socialist deputy Jorge Seguro Sánchez, after four hearings of representatives of airline employees.

Seguro Sánchez referred to the distribution of WhatsApp and email messages involving the government of SIC and CNN Portugal, information that also became available this morning in the security room of the commission of inquiry.

“If this is confirmed, I think that at the next meeting we will need to make a decision on this issue,” Seguro Sanchez emphasized.

Social Democratic MP Paulo Ríos de Oliveira recalled that these messages “have a sender and a recipient”, although he acknowledged that the moment of disclosure “imposes more responsibility” on parliament than on senders.

Socialist MP Bruno Aragao, on the other hand, asked to “not only reflect” but “act accordingly”. “What I hope is that we will not enter into serious discussions about understanding and that the mechanisms envisaged will be used to understand what happened,” he urged.

For his part, Communist MP Bruno Diaz said he could not remember a parliamentary commission of inquiry being so widely publicized that it had so much news and commentary “about everything but what the commission does.” “Someone gains a lot from this, but this is definitely not the Assembly of the Republic and not a democracy,” he said.

Jorge Seguro Sanchez said it would not be unprecedented to investigate what he described as an attack on the work of the commission in an “anti-democratic, illegal and totally unacceptable manner.”

“But I think that we need to know exactly what happened, and be absolutely sure of the suspicions that we all have about what happened,” the chairman of the commission emphasized.

The matter will be discussed at a meeting of the board and coordinators on Friday morning to decide on the most effective response. “We will hold the necessary discussions there,” said Seguro Sanchez.