Fernando Medina is suspected of being involved in an alleged conspiracy between PS and PSD leaders to negotiate political positions, according to an investigation by the TVI/CNN Portugal released tonight.
It involved the placement of people with political confidence in exchange for personal benefits.
In addition to the current finance minister and former mayor of Lisbon, current minister Duarte Cordeiro and a current and former PSD deputy are also involved.
There are hundreds of wiretaps and compromising email exchanges for both parties, all of which were recorded by the prosecutor investigating the Tutti Frutti case.
In a response to TVI/CNN Portugal, Medina says the allegations are false, stressing that he was not informed or heard by the prosecution about any trial and that he did not participate in or was aware of any ” secret pact” or pre-election agreements with the PSD in the 2017 municipal elections or other elections.
The current minister Duarte Cordeiro also denied any knowledge of this matter.
Public funds for private services?
TVI/CNN Portugal also argues that the PJ discovered, among the more than 100 emails it seized on the computer of the then mayor of Lisbon, that the municipality paid five thousand euros between 2016 and 2017, to an advisor hired by “city council services”, but whose role was actually to prepare Fernando Medina’s comments on TVI, where he had a weekly opinion space in his personal capacity and not as mayor, and the articles that the then mayor of Lisbon wrote in Correio da Manha.
However, the current finance minister denies that he has specifically hired advice for his participation in the media or that any contract or agreement has been signed for that amount.
Also according to TVI/CNN, the Prosecutor’s Office formally suspects Medina of various crimes in at least five cases related to the years when the socialist led the capital’s autarchy. At stake are alleged acts of corruption, economic participation in business, prohibited funding of parties, subterfuge of political office holders, influence and abuse of power.
The then number 2 of Medina and current minister of the environment, Duarte Cordeiro, is also considered suspicious.
Although suspected, Fernando Medina is not charged in this case.
Source: DN
