António Costa called Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa as a witness in the case against the former governor of the Banco de Portugal, Carlos Costa, who accused the prime minister of political pressure. CNN Portugal.
The head of government indicted Carlos Costa for “honor offences”, after the former governor accused him of “political interference” in the book “O Governador” in the case of the removal of Isabel dos Santos from the BIC bank.
O Emphaticallyciting a source related to the trial, explains that the President of the Republic will not be a witness or prosecutor as he has only been asked to give a statement on the relevant facts of the government’s intervention.
The book “O Governador”, edited by Dom Quixote, is the result of a series of interviews by the Observer journalist Luís Rosa with Carlos Costa, who led Banco de Portugal between 2010 and 2020, and caused controversy.
The prime minister announced he would sue the former governor of Banco de Portugal for insulting his honor after Mário Centeno’s predecessor reported in the book that he had been pressured by the head of government not to remove Isabel dos Santos from the BIC bank to delete.
On the day of the book’s presentation, last November, António Costa insisted that the former governor’s statements are false and, having “neither retracted nor publicly asked for the apology”, issued a lawyer to.
The next day, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, publicly defended António Costa against the former governor’s accusations, believing that the Portuguese authorities acted in the name of the national interest in the case involving Isabel dos Santos.
During the presentation, Carlos Costa justified the decision to run the book by “contributing to strengthening the respect that the institution of Banco de Portugal deserves”, in what he says is a “public interest task”.
Regarding the sale of Banif, Carlos Costa accused the Prime Minister of sending a letter to Brussels during the bank’s sale process and then-Minister Mário Centeno of negotiating with Santander, both matters without his knowledge.
In the text, the head of government asked the leaders of the European Commission and the ECB – Jean-Claude Juncker and Mario Draghi – for a face-to-face meeting where “the strategy for global intervention in the financial system, capitalization schedules and sales processes of Novo Banco and Banif and the financial situation of the bank resolution fund”.
“Carlos Costa only knew about it through the ECB,” reads the book, which shows that the message was received with surprise by the European Central Bank.
According to the publication, the letter had an impact on the required capital ratios of Portuguese banks, as the Single Supervisory Mechanism mandated an increase in minimum capital ratios to 12% from January 2016.
Carlos Costa’s book led to a questionnaire being sent by the PSD faction to the Prime Minister, to which António Costa responded by refusing to have taken any steps on behalf of Isabel dos Santos and stating that the sale of Banif had been carried out by Banco de Portugal led by Carlos Costa, who concluded in December 2015 that the sale of Banif by resolution to Santander was the only alternative to liquidation.
Source: DN
