The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) confirmed this Wednesday the start of an investigation process into the conduct of the prosecutor who accompanied the latest raids on Manuel Pinho, after a letter sent by the former minister denouncing intimidation and humiliation attempts.
“The Attorney General of the Republic, in his capacity as President of the Superior Council of the Public Ministry, determined the initiation of an investigation process intended, under the terms of article 264, paragraph 2 of the Statute of the Public Ministry, to evaluate the disciplinary relevance of the actions of the Public Ministry”, the PGR confirmed to Lusa, after news advanced by Eco and Correio da Manhã.
EDP case: Manuel Pinho denounces intimidation and humiliation in a letter sent to the PGR
In a letter sent to the PGR, former Economy Minister Manuel Pinho denounced intimidation and attempted humiliation in the raids at the beginning of the month of the residence in Braga where he is under house arrest in the context of the EDP case.
According to the letter, to which Lusa had access, the former government official said that the operation led by the Public Ministry (MP) had approximately thirty elements, “among which are several armed agents, whose intention could not be other than to intimidate????????
Manuel Pinho also criticized the confiscations made in this procedure in the Gondizalves house, since the order would indicate the confiscation of “valuable goods” and among the objects seized are bottles of common wine, a finsdrawings made by the ex-minister’s brother-in-law and photographs.
“This ridiculous apprehension can only be explained by the attempt to humiliate me in order to retaliate against a recent decision of the Court of Appeal that questions the thesis defended by the prosecutors and the judge and by the visible desire to show abusive and arbitrary power. he accused.
Pinho was referring to the October ruling in which the seizure of the defendant’s pension was revoked, and the MP reacted with a request for a preventive and total seizure of the pension.
In addition to pointing out abuse of power to the deputy, Manuel Pinho also denounced an alleged situation of homophobiaalleging that the prosecutor who led the raids made “homophobic considerations” about the judge who was previously on the case.
In the message sent to Lucília Gago, the former governor (he was a minister between 2005 and 2009) thus demanded “disciplinary and criminal measures” in response to this complaint.
Copies of the letter for the European Court of Human Rights, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality also followed.
The EDP case is related to the Contractual Balance Maintenance Costs (CMEC) in which the former managers António Mexia and Manso Neto are suspected of corruption and economic participation in businesses for the maintenance of the excessive rent contract, in which, according to the MP allegedly corrupted former Economy Minister Manuel Pinho and former Secretary of State for Energy Artur Trindade.
Manuel Pinho was indicted in the summer of 2017, on suspicion of corruption and money laundering, in a case related to money from Grupo Espírito Santo.
In the EDP/CMEC process, the MP charges former directors António Mexia and Manso Neto, in co-authorship, with four crimes of active corruption and one crime of economic participation in businesses.
The process also has as defendants João Conceição, REN administrator and former consultant to Manuel Pinho, and Artur Trindade, former Secretary of State for Energy in a PSD government.
Source: Observadora
