The Court of the Comarca of Porto has asked the Assembly of the Republic to lift PSD deputy Joaquim Pinto Moreira’s parliamentary immunity for the “alleged practice” of four crimes, including passive corruption and subterfuge.
The opinion of the Commission for Transparency and Statute of Deputies, reported by Expresso, and to which the Lusa agency had access, will be voted on this Wednesday at a meeting of this commission and indicates that the judge is asking parliament for permission for Pinto Moreira to be drafted “as the defendant and to be heard as such”.
At issue is according to the opinion report the alleged practice of crimes of passive corruption of political office holders – “ultimately aggravated” if the benefit is “of great value” or “considerably high” – subterfuge, influence and abuse of power.
The parliamentary document states that “three out of four allegedly committed crimes correspond to a criminal justice framework with a maximum of more than three years”.
According to the Constitution and the Statute of Deputies, the waiver of parliamentary immunity is mandatory “when there is strong evidence of the commission of an intentional crime equivalent to imprisonment for a maximum of more than three years”.
“Taking into account the above and never forgetting that this committee is not responsible for pronouncing or even analyzing the substantive issue, it must be concluded that the Assembly of the Republic is obliged to authorize the waiver of parliamentary immunity,” according to the opinion, which still has to be voted on in plenary.
Joaquim Pinto Moreira, who was contacted by the committee, “expressed his wish to deliberate on the lifting of his parliamentary immunity, citing expressly that he considers the elements sent by the court to be sufficient for the Assembly to authorize for the cancellation” and requested “as soon as possible at the end of this procedure”.
On January 30, when the request for the waiver of immunity was made public, PSD deputy Joaquim Pinto Moreira announced that he would ask for his mandate to be suspended, but said this did not involve “any admission of guilt”.
At the same time, the Social Democrat insisted that he made this decision because he felt he had no “right to disrupt the normal functioning of the political work” of his party “and of its top officials”.
Pinto Moreira then indicated that he had “every interest in providing all the clarifications necessary in the context of the said investigation”, as they will be essential to prove his “complete innocence in the light of the alleged allegations” that have been uttered to him. .
This process is related to the Vortex operation, in which the home of Joaquim Pinto Moreira, former mayor of Espinho between 2009 and 2021, was searched and his computer and mobile phone were seized.
This operation resulted in the arrest of the then mayor of Espinho, Miguel Reis (PS), – who has since resigned – an official of this and three businessmen on suspicion of active and passive corruption, subterfuge, abuse of power and trafficking in influences.
Pinto Moreira was first elected as a deputy in the 2022 parliamentary elections, having become vice president of the social-democratic group led by Joaquim Miranda Sarmento after Luís Montenegro took over the PSD presidency.
The social democrat recently left the vice-chairmanship of the PSD group and the chairmanship of the parliamentary constitutional review committee after being the target of house searches as part of the Vortex operation.
Source: DN
