PGR grants another 20 days to complete investigation of the EDP/CMEC process, which has already lasted 12 years
The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) granted another 20 days to the prosecutors in the EDP/CMEC case to conclude the investigation opened 12 years ago by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action, after the deadline of September 30th had passed.
According to the order of the deputy attorney general of the Republic, released today by SIC and to which Lusa also had access, Carlos Adérito Teixeira highlighted that “the deadline for closing the investigation has been successively extended” at the request of the magistrates responsible through the process, describing the latest deadline postponements.
“At this stage, it is up to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to define and weigh the relevance of the evidence acquired in the process without prejudice to the fact that, at any time, the evidence can be questioned. Having said that, at this point, the condition that persisted in issuing the order of closing the investigation. Therefore, the deadline is not extended under the terms that have been established and the order closing the investigation is determined to be finalized in 20 days”, the order reads.
A judicial source had advanced to Lusa last week the new request for postponement, in which they advocated granting another 30 days to close the investigation, that is, until October 30th, something that the deputy attorney general of the Republic did not accept. fully. As the order is dated October 3rd, the prosecutors in the case will have to issue an indictment/archive order by the 23rd.
“Constraints are invoked, relating to the recent procedural process that has been developed with the Central Court of Criminal Instruction, and which are believed to have already been overcome. The crux of the issue at hand here goes back to the affirmation or not of the so-called ‘effect on distance’ of prohibited proof. At issue is the identification of means of proof causally dependent on the ‘poisonous tree’ that affects its legal subsistence”, said Carlos Adérito Teixeira.
The latest deadline extensions were due, above all, to the presence in the process of 3,277 emails seized from former EDP administrators António Mexia and João Manso Neto and whose seizure was annulled in October 2023 by a ruling establishing the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ). With these emails declared as prohibited evidence, it was necessary to analyze the consequences and ramifications on the rest of the evidence gathered by the MP.
Among the main defendants in this case are the former directors of EDP António Mexia and João Manso Neto, who ended up being removed from their roles in the company following this case, in addition to João Conceição, director of REN and former consultant to the former minister of Economy Manuel Pinho, or the former general director of Energy Miguel Barreto.
The EDP/CMEC Case ended up leading in December 2022 to the indictment of former minister Manuel Pinho, his wife Alexandra Pinho, and former banker Ricardo Salgado for facts unrelated to the company and the Contractual Balance Maintenance Costs (CMEC ), which led to the opening of the investigation in 2012.
The investigation has since been separated and António Mexia, João Manso Neto, João Conceição and Miguel Barreto are suspected of crimes of corruption and economic participation in business.
