The Public Prosecution Service (MP) believes that the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, accused in the lithium and hydrogen business case, acted illegally to unblock procedures related to Start Campus for the benefit of the company.
The MP’s indictment, which Lusa had access to on Thursday, states that defendant João Galamba “acted freely and clearly in combination of efforts and purposes” with the defendants Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves (partners of Start Campus), as well as with Diogo Lacerda Machado (lawyer, advisor and friend of Prime Minister António Costa) and Vítor Escária (Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister), illegally decided “in the administrative and legislative procedures related to Start Campus and the imposition of greater speed” in assessing the company in question.
João Galamba and defendant Nuno Lacasta (president of the Portuguese Environmental Association/APA) are accused, still together with Afonso Salema, Rui Oliveira Neves, Diogo Lacerda Machado and Vítor Escária, of having instructed several employees of APA and AICEP (Agency for Investments and Foreign Trade of Portugal) to “adapt the administrative and legislative procedures related to Start Campus to the plan they had previously outlined, immediately gaining speed”, which they partially achieved.
The MP believes that João Galamba and Nuno Lacasta had the “duties of equality, proportionality, justice, exemption, impartiality, accuracy, transparency and legality in the performance of public administration”, duties that both “breached with the intention of unlawfully because it took advantage of the defendant Start Campus and its Sines Data Center, thereby damaging citizens’ trust in public institutions and their credibility.”
In more detail, the MP’s order states that on October 19, 2020, Diogo Lacerda Machado and other people met at least Galamba – the then Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Energy – to whom they presented the project.
On the same date, the document states, Galamba contacted Hugo Mendes – then Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Communications – by telephone to inform him that he had held the said meeting and, referring to the initiators of the project, stated he: “that’s an Irish company. , two Portuguese companies, an American fund and Diogo Lacerda Machado”.
During this meeting, Diogo Lacerda Machado and the other project representatives told João Galamba that they intended to receive “political support” and “license support” from the government.
The next day, in a telephone conversation with a friend, Galamba states that “they want political support and licensing support”.
When asked by his friend whether “the Prime Minister already understands the importance of this”, he answers: “There are people around him who understand it”.
In any case, days later, Diogo Lacerda Machado and others met with Pedro Siza Vieira – then Minister of State for the Economy and Digital Transition – to whom they also presented the project.
After the implementation of the project, mainly with the acquisition of the capital of Start Campus by investing companies, it was presented on April 23, 2021 at an event, attended together by Afonso Salema, Galamba, Siza Vieira and the Prime Minister. himself, Minister António Costa.
The MP states that Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves began to contact João Galamba directly and very regularly, even after the latter began serving as minister, and that such contacts took place not only during formal meetings at the Secretariat of State or the Ministry, but also abroad. meals and exchanging messages.
The Public Prosecutor’s order includes several lunches and dinners between Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves and João Galamba.
One of the lunches mentioned, on September 28, 2022, at the restaurant “Trinca Espinhas”, in Sines, cost 564.45 euros, paid in full by Afonso Salema.
The MP says that during that lunch, João Galamba Afonso assured Salema that he would approve the necessary measures to strengthen the injection capacity of the Sines electricity network, to cover the data center.
The investigation into the lithium and hydrogen trade, which led to the Prime Minister’s resignation, has nine defendants, five of whom are in custody: Vítor Escária, Diogo Lacerda Machado, Nuno Mascarenhas, mayor of Sines, Afonso Salema and Rui Neves, directors of the Startcampus Association.
Among the defendants are João Tiago Silveira, lawyer and former PS spokesperson, and the company START – Sines Transatlantic Renewable & Technology Campus SA.
As part of this investigation, António Costa is the target of an independent investigation by the MP at the Supreme Court, after suspects in the case put forward his name for intervening to unblock administrative and legislative procedures related to the projects.
Source: DN
