The manager of the company Start Campus Afonso Salema, arrested as part of the investigation into the lithium and hydrogen trade, will resign from his role in the company after being subjected to a judicial hearing, his lawyer said on Friday.
“The aim is for the company to continue the project in the best possible way, to this extent and having not yet made any statements, but will do so, it has understood that it must resign from its position as CEO of the company. what it will do in due course after questioning and applying a possible coercive measure,” Pedro Duro told journalists during the lunch break during the judicial interrogation of the five detainees in the lithium and hydrogen business case.
The other company director Rui Oliveira Neves was heard on Friday morning by criminal judge Nuno Dias Costa, an interrogation that will continue in the afternoon.
Upon leaving the Central Criminal Court in Lisbon, Afonso Salema’s lawyer justified his dismissal with “the protection of the good name of the company, the protection of the employees and the project”.
Pedro Duro also stated that regardless of whether or not Afonso Salema is in preventive detention, “There are a number of reputational implications that need to be taken into account to safeguard the future of the company and those who work there.”
The lawyer also admitted that “the company clearly doesn’t have the best image right now.”
According to Pedro Duro, Pedro Salema’s interrogation should begin mid-afternoon on Friday as the interrogation that started in the morning is coming to an end.
Paulo Farinha Alves, lawyer for the company Start Campus, based in Sines and also a defendant in the case, told journalists that the company’s intention is to continue the work it is developing in Portugal.
In addition to the two administrators of Start Campus, who are at the center of the investigations, Vítor Escária, chief of staff of the acquitted prime minister, Diogo Lacerda Machado, lawyer, advisor and friend of António Costa, and Nuno Mascarenhas, president of the Chamber of Sines.
Nuno Mascarenhas was the first to make statements on Thursday, followed by Rui Oliveira Neves, Afonso Salema, Vítor Escária and finally Diogo Lacerda Machado.
Tuesday’s operation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office led to the detention of five people for questioning and the arrest of four suspects, namely the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, the president of the Portuguese Environment Agency, Nuno Lacasta, the lawyer and former voice of the PS, João Tiago Silveira and the company Start Campus.
The investigation into the lithium, green hydrogen and Sines data center activities may involve crimes, active and passive corruption of political office holders and the ventilation of influence.
The Prime Minister, António Costa, who resigned on Tuesday, is the target of an independent investigation by the MP in an investigation opened at the Supreme Court of Justice after suspects put forward his name for intervening to delay procedures in the companies under investigation unblock. .
Source: DN
