According to information provided to Lusa by an official source, the chairman of the TAP Commission of Inquiry, Socialist Deputy Jorge Seguro Sanches, has sent a letter to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, “requesting a summary examination of compliance with relevant legal rules and, where appropriate, identification of situations subject to correction and sanction”.
This morning the table and the coordinators of the TAP investigative committee met, behind closed doors, and this was one of the topics discussed between the delegates, but without any explanation to journalists at the end.
The chairman of the TAP investigative committee thought on Thursday evening that the disclosure of confidential information in the media is an “attack on the heart of democracy” that deserves an exemplary punishment from those responsible.
Seguro Sanches referred to the distribution of WhatsApp and email messages, involving the government, by SIC and CNN Portugal, information that also became available that morning in the control room of the Commission of Inquiry.
“I think this is an attack on the very heart of democracy. These are things that basically make us think that we are not all doing what we should be doing for the good and common good of our country. If it happens, identify then hold those responsible and punish them in an exemplary manner, even for the public example that can be given,” said the committee’s chairman.
“If it is confirmed, I think we should have a point in the next meeting to make decisions regarding this matter,” Seguro Sanches stressed.
The committee chair also said it would not be unprecedented to launch an investigation into the matter, which he classified as an attack on the work of the committee carried out in an “anti-democratic, illegal and absolutely unacceptable manner” . .
Social Democratic deputy Paulo Rios de Oliveira recalled that these messages “have a sender and a receiver”, although he admitted that the moment of disclosure places “more responsibility” on parliament than on the publishers.
Socialist deputy Bruno Aragão, on the other hand, asked that “more than thinking” one should “act accordingly”. “What I hope is that we don’t get into big discussions about reflection and that the mechanisms provided are used to understand what happened,” he appealed.
For his part, Communist deputy Bruno Dias said he could not recall a parliamentary commission of inquiry that had been so well publicized that there was so much news and comments “about everything except what the commission is doing”. “Someone benefits greatly from this, but it is certainly not the Assembly of the Republic, nor democracy.” mention.
Source: DN
