In about twenty wiretaps carried out on the suspects of the Influencer operation launched by the Prosecutor’s Office, and which led last week to the resignation of the Prime Minister of Portugal, the name of António Costa only appeared in one of them, but it referred to António Costa Silva, the Minister of Economy.
This was stated before the investigating judge Nuno Dias Costa, the lawyer of one of the main defendants, Diogo Lacerda Machado, an old friend of António Costa and consultant for the firm Start Campus, which is at the center of the investigations. According to Lacerda’s lawyer, Manuel Magalhaes, the Prosecutor’s Office recognized the error. Or at least the public ministry has not denied it. Another of the accused belongs to Costa’s personal circle, his former chief of staff, Vítor Escária, who the prime minister himself, after resigning and already in office, dismissed when it was revealed that he kept 75,000 euros in cash in the official office of he.
But the most substantial thing about the case is that on Monday Judge Dias Costa dismantled the Prosecutor’s argument by withdrawing the charges of corruption and prevarication against Lacerda, Escária, the two directors of Start Campus, Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, and the mayor by Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas. The five were released (the judge considered the prison “disproportionate”) with a ban on leaving the country and some fines.
The investigating judge only maintained the charge of influence peddling, but even exonerated the mayor of Sines (Setúbal), the destination of a planned data center linked to lithium mining exploitation, from this charge. Experts consulted by Expresso pointed out in any case that the Prosecutor’s Office could still insist on the charges and appeal the measures applied against the accused. Yesterday afternoon it was announced that, in effect, the public ministry will not give up and will present an appeal.
There are other errors in the investigation that would point to hasty action by the Prosecutor’s Office. Who would now seem to be singled out by the wiretaps, the head of Economy, António Costa Silva, said that he never had contact with Diogo Lacerda (in the recording of one of the wiretaps, Lacerda says: “If it is economics, I will find a way to contact him himself António Costa”) and that “it makes me very sad that the prime minister’s name has been involved in all this. He is a person of absolute integrity.”
António Costa is, however, pending an investigation by the Supreme Court. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa last week praised his “gesture” in resigning and has kept him as acting prime minister until the early elections on March 10, a period apparently long enough for the Socialist Party to reorganize and name a candidate. Costa also resigned from the general secretary of the party, and right now José Luis Carneiro, Minister of the Interior, and Pedro Nuno Santos, Costa’s former deputy, are the candidates to lead the party and to head the electoral list.
