The parliamentary leader of the PSD stressed this Friday that the suspension of deputy Joaquim Pinto Moreira’s mandate will happen automatically with “a final impeachment”, saying that “everything else depends on the deputy’s exclusive will”.
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento’s statements were broadcast by TSF and are an excerpt from an interview that the Social Democratic leader gave to this radio station and Jornal de Notícias, which will be released in full on Sunday.
PSD deputy Joaquim Pinto Moreira was charged with aggravated passive corruption, influence and violation of urban rules by an associate in the Vórtex trial, related to urban projects by Espinho City Council.
“I remember that the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of the Republic say that at the moment the accusation is final – at this stage I think there may still be pre-instructions – taking into account that these crimes criminal framework of more than three years, if there is an automatic suspension of the deputy’s functions, this case will be inevitable,” he said.
“Everything else depends on the exclusive will of the deputy sheriff,” he thought.
In the fragment broadcast by TSF, Miranda Sarmento repeated that Joaquim Pinto Moreira, two months after deciding to suspend his mandate when he was named a defendant in this trial, decided “unilaterally and not coordinated” with the parliamentary group or the party leadership to resume her mandate.
“We have withdrawn his political confidence. Whether he continues as a deputy or not? This is a matter that is exclusively up to him, the position of the deputy is personal. It is not something that the PSD can decide, and well,” he defended .
According to the Statute of Deputies, “Criminal proceedings have been instituted against a deputy and he has been definitively charged”. case of “a crime equivalent to imprisonment for a maximum of more than three years and committed in flagrante delicto”.
The Social Democrat asked for his mandate to be suspended in late March after being made an arguido, but two months later announced he would resume his seat in parliament, a decision the PSD leadership said he was unaware of , having withdrawn the no-confidence policy towards the deputy – meaning he stopped voicing the Social Democrats’ views – although he remains on two committees.
According to the accusation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), to which the Lusa office had access and which was put forward on Thursday by the magazine Visão, the social democrat and former mayor of Espinho (2009-2021) was accused by the Porto- Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP) of two crimes of passive corruption, one of influence and another of violation of city rules, the latter co-authored.
“Given the seriousness of the acts committed during the period when he was mayor of Espinho and, subsequently, the influence he already wielded as deputy of the Assembly of the Republic (…) there is a concrete risk of the continuation of criminal activities .” activity, as well as the risk of disrupting the course of the investigation”, Pinto Moreira is obliged to pay a bail of 200 thousand euros and the ban on contact with all defendants and witnesses.
Source: DN
