SDP calls for suspension of all individual requests for access to communications in twins case

This Wednesday, the SDP demanded that the parliamentary commission investigating the twins suspend all requests from individuals for access to recordings or copies of the messages.

In a request accessed by the Lusa agency, signed initially by the coordinator of this commission of inquiry on behalf of the Social Democratic College, António Rodrigues, it is stated that the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, for the sake of order, requested the opinion of the Advisory Council of the Attorney General’s Office on this matter.

“Taking into account the order (…) of the President of the Assembly of the Republic on the powers of parliamentary commissions of inquiry regarding the possibility of requesting from individuals a certain type of communication, in view of the legitimate doubts and considerations contained therein”, requires that “requests for access to records and/or copies of all communications be suspended until a response is received from the Attorney General’s Office”, the document says.

This Wednesday, the Lusa agency reported that the President of the Assembly of the Republic requested the opinion of the Attorney General’s Office after Chega, within the framework of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the twins, requested access to the messages of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

The document states that Chega, within the framework of the legal regime of parliamentary commissions of inquiry, submitted a request to the President of the Assembly of the Republic “for good offices, asking that the President of the Republic be contacted, if possible in digital format, to register and/or copy all communications (namely letters, messages written by mobile phone or via the Internet – Whatsapp, Messenger, Telegram and email messages) relating to the case of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins.”

Among other things, Chega wants access to correspondence (letters, emails, written communications, etc.) between the son of the Head of State, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, and the President of the Republic; communications (letters, emails, written communications, etc.) between Nuno Rebelo de Sousa and the Government or members of the Government or members of government agencies; and an email from Nuno Rebelo de Sousa to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa dated 21 October 2019.

However, the order of the President of the Assembly of the Republic notes that the possibility of “incorporating private communications and telecommunications of respondents, in particular the recording and/or copying of all communications (…) into the main core, raises doubts about the right to a parliamentary investigation.”

Thus, “the objective is to carry out a preliminary analysis of a more comprehensive nature and to resolve the doubts listed, aware that the Assembly of the Republic, in the exercise of its oversight functions, has the task of monitoring compliance with the Constitution and the laws and of assessing the actions of the Government and the administration, and that parliamentary inquiries have the function of monitoring compliance with the Constitution and the laws,” the justification for the request submitted to the Advisory Council of the GRR emphasizes.

In his order, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco refers to the practice of the Constitutional Court.

“It is an established fact that parliamentary commissions of inquiry are essentially political bodies and are not and cannot be transformed into courts. It follows that the investigative powers of these commissions can never lead to a conviction in the case of conviction, and they cannot affect fundamental rights, which in the course of a criminal investigation can only be affected by a judicial decision,” he says.

According to the same case law, parliamentary commissions of inquiry “do not pursue the purpose of performing judicial functions.”

“But only to investigate facts and collect evidence concerning certain matters of public interest, with the subsequent presentation of its findings to Parliament and thus enabling it to effectively exercise its constitutional functions, namely the function of monitoring the actions of the government and public administration,” he adds.

The parliamentary commission of inquiry and the investigation process carried out by the PGR, whose defendants are the former Minister of Health Lacerda Sales and Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, son of the President of the Republic, is the way in which two Portuguese-Brazilian children were treated with Zolgensma at the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon. A drug that costs two million euros per person.