Former President of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, made harsh criticisms of the Attorney General's Office (PGR) this Sunday, in view of the lack of information about the proceedings in the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) that target former Prime Minister António Costa, five months after the release of the press release that led to the resignation request of the then Head of Government and triggered the political crisis that culminated in the fall of the Socialist Executive and the election of a new government.

“It has been five months since a press release from the Attorney General's Office informed the country that the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) was conducting a criminal investigation into the then Prime Minister, leading him to submit his resignation, with the consequent fall of the Government”, began by stating Santos Silva, this Sunday, on the social network Facebook.

The socialist pointed out that, “since then, nothing else is known, with the PGR having limited itself to publishing another note about the distribution of proceedings by teams of magistrates”. The official went further, having recalled that “Parliament was dissolved, elections were held and the competent authorities did not deign to clarify the initiative that was at the origin of all these developments”.

“The person targeted was never heard. There are those who may think that this is the normal course of Justice, in its own time. For me, it is a gross violation of basic principles of the rule of law, including disrespect for the separation of powers, contempt for the citizens' right to essential information for their civic choices and an offense to the fundamental rights of any person, whatever their private or public condition”, he said.

It should be noted that, in António Costa's farewell to the European Council, the former Head of Government refused to comment on the statements then made by the Attorney General, Lucília Gago, who stated that the case targeting him may be transferred from the STJ to the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action.

"I have already had the opportunity to make it clear that when Justice wants to talk to me, it knows where I am, it knows my phone number. I do not speak to justice through the media", he said.

It should also be recalled that Operation Influencer led to the arrest of Vítor Escária, António Costa's chief of staff, as well as the lawyer, consultant and friend of the former Prime Minister Diogo Lacerda Machado, the directors of the company Start Campus Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves, and also the Mayor of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas, who the judge released after judicial questioning.

In addition to these, there are four other defendants in the process, including the former Minister of Infrastructure João Galamba, the president of the Portuguese Environment Agency, Nuno Lacasta, the lawyer, former Secretary of State for Justice and former spokesman for the Socialist Party (PS) João Tiago Silveira and the company Start Campus.

The process is related to the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines, Setúbal, and to the project to build a data center in the industrial and logistics zone of Sines by Start Campus. António Costa was associated with this case and was the target of an investigation opened by the Public Prosecutor's Office at the STJ, a situation that led him to request his resignation and the holding of early elections, on March 10.

Even so, in February, the judge of Operation Influencer considered contradictory and vague the Public Prosecutor's Office's thesis that the defendants Diogo Lacerda Machado and Vitor Escária tried to pressure António Costa to approve a decree-law favorable to the company Start Campus, an argument contained in the response of magistrate Nuno Dias Costa to the appeal of the Public Prosecutor's Office contesting the coercive measures, none of which were deprivation of liberty.

Leia Também: "Útil" e "bom humor". Despedida de Costa em Bruxelas (com 'farpas' à PGR) (Portuguese version)