The government has filed criminal charges against Frederico Pinheiro, assistant to minister João Galamba, who was fired on Wednesday but did not make this public until Friday.
According to news published by SIC, the complaint is related to the fact that the former employee of the Minister of Infrastructure went to the Ministry’s premises to forcibly take a computer that he says was his, although the services understand that the machine belongs to the cabinet.
This episode also featured an alleged attempt to attack two cabinet advisers.
As DN found out, the judicial police have already opened an investigation and it will be the National Counterterrorism Unit (UNCT) that will investigate this crime, which has to do with alleged classified documents that were on Galamba’s deputy sheriff’s computer.
It is recalled that Frederico Pinheiro was dismissed on Wednesday for “behaviour incompatible with the duties and responsibilities” inherent in the performance of his duties, according to official information.
The former Galamba deputy is the target of the exchange of information released to the media on Thursday about the controversy at TAP.
The ministry added that according to the law, “the members of ministerial cabinets are ‘freely appointed and acquitted by order of the member of the government’, and these decisions are later published in the Diário da República”.
Expresso stated this Friday that “Frederico Pinheiro, the assistant who coordinated the ‘secret meeting of the PS with the former CEO’ [presidente executiva] of TAP, was acquitted by Galamba”.
However, and according to the weekly, the computer has already been returned, according to the former consultant “of its own free will”, even if it involved the intervention of the SIS – Information and Security Service, which went to the home of Frederico Pinheiro.
In a statement, Frederico Pinheiro accused the minister of wanting to lie to TAP’s parliamentary committee about the “preparatory meeting” with the former CEO.
(Read it all here_:)
In response, Galamba sent a statement to the newsrooms early in the evening denying this allegation “categorically” and guaranteeing that “all documentation requested by the CPI had been fully provided”.
“With regard to the exemption of Frederico Pinheiro, it is clarified that it stems from the fact that the then deputy repeatedly denied the existence of meeting minutes requested by the CPI, which could have led to a wrong answer to the CPI on the part of the MI cabinet [Ministério das Infraestruturas].
Source: DN
