Commander in 2006, Knight in 2016 and now… convicted. Diogo Gaspar, former director of the Museum of the Presidency, heard this Monday the sentence of six years and six months in prison, with the judge proving the commission of 18 crimes – seven of embezzlement, four of participation in affairs, four of abuse of power , two about forgery of documents and one about influence. Diogo Gaspar’s lawyer has already announced that he will appeal.
The acknowledgment that two heads of state gave to the former head of the Museum of the Presidency ultimately weighed, but in his disgrace. “It was you who, in fact, managed to create the Museum of the Presidency. He was a person worthy of trust, which is why he had a very close relationship with the presidents of the Republic. And he betrayed that trust because he wanted to have more than he could have. That’s it.” brought him to it over several years, in the context of different activities, different companies, always trying [ver] where there was an opportunity to earn a little more,” judge Luís Ribeiro detained at the reading of the verdict at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon. The remaining three defendants were sentenced to suspended sentences, mainly for the crime of economic participation in business .
The process that has now led to the conviction and effective imprisonment of the former director of the Museum of the Presidency began in April 2015, prompted by an anonymous complaint that led to an investigation by the Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP) in Lisbon . Subsequently, in June 2016, the judicial police launched “Operação Cavaleiro”, with searches at ten locations – including Diogo Gaspar’s house – after subsequently seizing “several cultural and artistic assets believed to be derived from public institutions” – and that had been found in the house of the director of the Museum of the Presidency, as well as in the house of friends. Diogo Gaspar was arrested. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa then promised full cooperation with the authorities. “Although it was not my choice, I hope that I can prove my innocence. But what is a fact is that the Portuguese expect that in the Presidency of the Republic, as in all institutions, justice will be applied without discrimination,” he said. Marcelo.
Commander and Knight
It was the President of the Republic himself who subsequently defined Diogo Gaspar as “an old service director, highly regarded”. Director of the Museum of the Presidency since its opening in 2004 – and largely responsible for the design of that space – Diogo Gaspar had been awarded the rank of Knight of the Military Order of Sant’Iago da just four months before his arrest. Espada, which aims to “distinguish literary, scientific and artistic merit”. Badges presented by Cavaco Silva shortly before leaving Belém Palace – and they were not the first. In 2006, he had already been decorated by Jorge Sampaio with the rank of Commander of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique, awarded to “anyone who has rendered relevant services to Portugal, in the country and abroad, as well as services in the expansion of the Portuguese culture or for knowledge of Portugal, its history and its values”.
Born in Lisbon on April 23, 1971, Diogo Gaspar graduated in History (in the Art History variant) in 1993, from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, the same faculty where he took the specialization course in Science, five years later. According to the curriculum note published when he was appointed director of the Museu da Presidency, he started working (since 1995) at the National Archives Institute/Torre do Tombo and became coordinator of the Museu da Presidency of the Republic in September 2001 . “He was responsible for defining the museum program and project, as well as for the most diverse tasks in the running of the museum, namely the acquisition and incorporation, by gift or deposit, of documentary assets of former presidents of the Republic, the preparation of more than a dozen tenders for the acquisition of the most diverse services and equipment, the structuring of the cultural patronage campaign and the implementation of the various services”. A path that led him to lead the museum when it opened in 2004 – he was 33 years old at the time – and which he would remain until 2016.
A path later supported by the prosecution’s accusation was far from being as exemplary as it seemed, as the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) reported suspicions of “appropriation of public movable property” and “use” as early as 2016 of state resources for private purposes”. During the rehabilitation of this space in 2009, Diogo Gaspar – who has always claimed innocence to have been the target of a clique – will have set up a fraudulent scheme to buy furniture from the museum itself and from the Palácio da Cidadela, goods that he himself had reported for slaughter, and also promoted the signings of the remaining defendants, his friends, by the offices of the presidency. Diogo Gaspar was charged with 42 crimes. He was sentenced to 18.
Source: DN
