The national director of the Judicial Police said on Wednesday that he had been approached by a member of the government about the alleged theft of the former assistant to the infrastructure minister’s computer and that he immediately reported the incident to the Public Prosecution Service.
“It was a member of the government who contacted me about this situation”Luís Neves told journalists, on the sidelines of the 1st International Conference for the Advancement of Digital Wellbeing, when asked about the investigation into the case regarding the recovery of the computer allegedly stolen by Frederico Pinheiro, a former deputy removed by the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba.
Without specifying who was the government member who contacted him, the director of the PJ explained that at the end of the night of last Wednesday, the judicial police had been informed “facts likely to constitute the commission of a crime relating to computer equipment” that may contain “classified and confidential information” on state affairs, namely on critical infrastructure.
“Based on that information, we immediately registered the situation as an investigation. We recovered the equipment that had already been salvaged by another state structure, by the SIS. The next day it was in CEGER’s possession [Centro de Gestão da Rede Informática do Governo]. The equipment is with us”he claimed.
Luís Neves argued that the PJ “soon communicated to the Public Prosecution Service everything that was going on”, being the investigation in Lisbon’s Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP).
The director of the PJ also revealed that police had given DIAP “a job proposal” to conduct a forensic computer investigation.
“If this computer equipment is tracked, of course it’s the PJ to do it,” he said, emphasizing that the PJ will do this job “once the MP determines it”.
During the press conference, in which João Galamba tried to clarify the controversy that arose on Friday with his acquitted deputy, the Minister of Infrastructure said that he had reported the theft of the computer to the Deputy Secretary of State to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice by Frederico Pinheiro , after being told his office should notify the SIS and the PJ, which was done.
The cabinet deputy of the Minister of Infrastructure Frederico Pinheiro was acquitted on Wednesday for “conduct incompatible with the duties and responsibilities” inherent in the exercise of his functions.
Source: DN
