This Wednesday, the PS accused the PSD of “creating confusion” about the information services, claiming that no one from the government is known to have activated the SIS and that Secretary of State Mendonça Mendes did not intervene.
Eurico Brilhante Dias, leader of the Socialist Group, addressed journalists after being confronted with the fact that the PSD had sent a request to the Prime Minister this Wednesday with 15 questions about the functioning of the information services on the night of the salvage of the laptop of the former deputy for infrastructure, who asked António Costa if he “authorised, approved or accepted” these steps.
“There is great confusion here. Anyone who wants clarification should listen to what the person who wants clarification says. I am sure the Prime Minister will look at the questions asked and give the answer he wants. But the Government has essentially already reacted”, supported the chairman of the PS parliamentary group.
Before the journalists, Eurico Brilhante Dias defended the statement that it is already known “who has activated the protocol, so that the SIS (Security Information Service) – in this case first with the SIRP (Information System of the Portuguese Republic) – can intervene”.
“We already know the nature of the intervention, namely how it differed from the intervention of the PJ and the PSP. We already know that the computer in question, which is in the custody of the PJ, contains material classified by the National Security Office and we already know that it was not a member of the government who spoke to the SIRP or the SIS,” he pleaded.
From the perspective of the chairman of the PS bank, regarding this matter, “whoever wants clarification should hear the answers, not only from the government, but also from the SIRP supervisory board and the SIS leader who is behind closed doors, answered the questions,” he said. Here Eurico Brilhante Dias alluded to the recent hearing of the Secretary General of the SIRP and the Director of the SIS at the Constitutional Affairs Committee.
“Anyone who wants to be enlightened should listen to the answers and not keep asking questions to which they already know the answers,” he insisted, before facing the fact that the Prime Minister’s deputy secretary of state, António Mendonça Mendes, who refused to explain to journalists his actions on the day the SIS was activated to retrieve the Ministry of Infrastructure computer owned by Frederico Pinheiro.
The chairman of the PS group responded: “We cannot participate in the confusion”.
“The Prime Minister’s Deputy Secretary of State did not activate the SIS and he was not the one who spoke to the SIRP. We also know that he was not the one who spoke to the Prime Minister because, as is known, the Prime Minister spoke much later than the facts with the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba,” he said.
Afterwards, Eurico Brilhante Dias left a question: “If we already know that the Prime Minister’s deputy secretary of state has not intervened, does this not add to the confusion?”.
“The secretary of state will come to parliament next week and then he will have the opportunity to clarify,” he added.
Source: DN
