The President of Chega this Saturday, before the press conference of João Galamba, demanded clarification from the Prime Minister about the alleged intervention of the SIS in the recovery of the computer that will have taken the former deputy of the Minister João Galamba, announcing that he will summon the director of this body to parliament.
“The action of the Security Information Service (SIS) must be explained. Why it happened, in what context it happened and above all what the legal framework is”, André Ventura said at a press conference at party headquarters in Beja.
The demand for an explanation, he stressed, is made to António Costa because “The Information and Security Services are supervised by the Prime Minister and not by the Minister of Infrastructure or any other state body”.
According to the leader of Chega, the recovery of the computer taken by Frederico Pinheiro, former assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure João Galamba, was “carried out by SIS” and not by the judicial police.
“The Security Information Service is neither a detective agency nor pawns in the hands of politicians”, warned and stressed that SIS is not competent to investigate theft or unauthorized seizure of materials.
Ventura asked several questions about the case, namely “who prompted the SIS intervention, whether or not the prime minister agreed to the intervention and why the process did not follow normal procedures”.
“The separation of powers, the autonomy of the SIS and the legal framework itself may be at stake,” said thehe noted, admitting that the government may have used the SIS “inappropriately for political purposes or of a political nature”.
For the Chega leader, the alleged intervention of SIS to recover Frederico Pinheiro’s computer “shows that the government was desperate and wanted to act immediately and not wait for another judicial or judicial authority”.
At the press conference, Ventura announced that the party he leads will summon the SIS director to parliament to “explain, even behind closed doors, who authorized this intervention, what justified it and how it was carried out”.
On the other hand, Chega’s leader believed that the president of the republic should speak out quickly on this matter, claiming that “the degradation of institutions is really at stake.”
“The case should once again lead Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to consider whether the regular functioning of institutions is at stake,” he added.
On Friday the dismissal of João Galamba’s assistant, Frederico Pinheiro, for “behavior incompatible with duties and responsibilities”, and his accusations to the Minister of Infrastructure, already categorically denied by the government official, that he had tried to omit information for the TAP research committee.
Also on Friday, several Portuguese media reported that Frederico Pinheiro reacted violently after this dismissal and attacked members of the Ministry of Infrastructure.
Already today, at a press conference in Lisbon, the Minister of Infrastructure considered having “all the conditions” in the government, denying contradictions and insisting that the facts show cooperation with TAP’s Commission of Inquiry.
Source: DN
