João Carvalho / Wikimídia
Palmela Palace, Headquarters of the Attorney General’s Office
The Public Ministry is investigating a cut in the seal of one of the boxes with evidence that was seized in “Operation Influencer”, a case that led to the dismissal of former Prime Minister António Costa.
At issue is material collected in the law firm Morais Leitãonotably documents belonging to the lawyer João Tiago Silveira who coordinated the Government working group responsible for the administrative ‘simplex’.
The seal on evidence boxes in legal proceedings aims to guarantee their inviolability. But the box in question will have been cut before reaching the judge’s hands criminal investigation, as reported by Público.
The Public Ministry (MP) has already opened an inquiry to investigate whether or not we are facing a crime, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) confirmed to .
Two boxes with evidence of the “” that led to , were opened due to “poor labeling”as the PGR also notes.
In the case of the box under suspicion, it was “partially opened, with seal removed of the respective closure area”, adds the PGR cited by Público.
When the situation was detected, “the immediate preservation of everything as it wasand the packaging of the box itself with the contents, in the exact state in which they were found, inside another box, which was sealed and labeled in the presence of a magistrate, for presentation to the criminal investigation judge”, says the Prosecutor’s Office.
Despite the cut in the seal, the MP believes that the evidence of “Operation Influencer” are not in question. The PGR emphasizes that “no document or media packed” inside the box was removed.
The suspicions of “Operation Influencer” surrounding João Tiago Silveira, who is a partner at Morais Leitão, involve an alleged attempt to include in the “industrial simplex” a norm to favor Start Campus.
This rule would have been requested by office colleague Rui Oliveira Neves who, at the time of the facts investigated, was director of Start Campus, the company responsible for a megaproject for a .
