João Tiago Silveira
Seal cuts on seized material occurred on three separate occasions and could call into question the validity of the evidence. PGR is investigating under judicial secrecy, but “for now”, everything indicates that it was “accidental”.
The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) is investigating cutting of stamps on material seized under the , which would provoke the government led by António Costa on November 7, 2023.
The seals guaranteed the inviolability of the seized material, which involves documents and electronic equipment from the law firm Morais Leitão. Once cut, the validity of the evidence in the process is called into question.
The breaking of seals, reported by the Central Criminal Instruction Court (TCIC), are seen by the PGR, “for now” as a “accidental occurrence”but they occurred on three separate occasions.
The first time, part of the material was not sealed during the searches, and was later sent for sealing; on a second occasion, the TCIC services themselves removed the seals, due to an alleged error in identifying the objects; the Public Ministry was responsible for a third breach, which led to a request for reconstitution of searches to verify the integrity of the evidence.
The reconstruction “aims to check whether the condition of the documents and other objects contained in those volumes is exactly the same as at the time of the search, when they were seized”.
Confronted by the newspaper, the PGR states that these breaks were accidental and ensures that the validity of the evidence was not compromised.
When “the problem was detected, steps were taken to determine the moment and circumstances in which it occurred, pointing out the information collected, for now, to the effect that it was an accidental occurrence”, he tells the morning newspaper. But, Público knows, the issue is not peaceful.
At issue in cutting the seals is material learned from lawyers from Morais Leitão, defendants in Influencer. And the lawyer João Tiago Silveirainvestigated for allegedly benefiting the Start Campus by including a favorable standard in the industrial simplex — a project that would have been favored by the Socialist Party (PS) governments led by António Costa — they will have already expressed an interest in following the process and could challenge the validity of the seizures, if the seal breaks are confirmed .
The process is still in progress judicial secrecy and a decision on the use of this evidence is awaited.
