The Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) recognized this Friday, November 21, in a statement that seven wiretaps were identified in which former Prime Minister António Costa was involved and which were not reported to the Supreme Court of Justice “for various technical reasons”, thus confirming the news reported by DN.
The PGR explained that, recently, “in the course of a new analysis of all wiretaps carried out” within the scope of Operation Influencer, seven wiretaps were identified, “in which Prime Minister António Costa was also involved, a fact that, for various technical reasons, had not been initially detected”.
According to the request made by DCIAP to the STJ and then to the Central Criminal Instruction Courthowever, as reported by DN, 22 interceptions were identified which involve conversations between three of the targets of the wiretaps (João Galamba, Diogo Lacerda Machado and João Matos Fernandes) and the former prime minister.
The PGR now reduces the interceptions to seven and reports that six were contact attempts, the PGR said in the same statement, highlighting that “all telephone tapping carried out within the scope of these processes [Operação Influencer]without any exception, were timely submitted for periodic control to the Investigating Judge of the Central Criminal Instruction Court”.
The same statement states, however, that “António Costa was never directly the subject of wiretapping or surveillance (neither when he was Prime Minister, nor when he was no longer prime minister)”, so he appeared in the wiretaps “incidentally, as part of wiretaps carried out on other people”.
In this sense, it guarantees the same note that whenever the former prime minister appeared in the wiretaps carried out “these communications were brought to the attention of the President of the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ)”, which did not happen, in fact, in the seven wiretaps analyzed most recently.
The DCIAP says that this omission “was formalized in the process and such communications were immediately brought to the attention of the President of the STJ, through the Investigating Judge of the TCIC”. As a consequence, “the President of the STJ issued an order that he was no longer competent to provide such knowledge as António Costa was not currently Prime Minister, ordering the file to be returned to the TCIC Judge”.
The statement also states that, by order, “the TCIC Investigating Judge decided, in short, that, given the control already carried out in a timely manner under the provisions of article 188, paragraphs 3 and 4, of the Criminal Procedure Code, which covered the communications now in question, there is nothing further to be determined at this time”.
The note also states that this Thursday, November 20th, the president of the Lisbon Court of Appeal dismissed “the incidents of complaints about breach of professional secrecy presented by two lawyers, so, when the final judgment becomes final, the procedures for selecting relevant evidence in matters of electronic mail will begin”.