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In a newspaper column on Thursday he
wrote: “The Portuguese authorities,
especially the Policia Judiciaria, have
been used and abused in the ambit of
international judicial cooperation, to
carry out work ordered by their British
counterparts.”
He added: “From chartered Air Force
helicopter flights, to search from above
for holes opened seven years ago, to the
return of the famous sniffer dogs, as
well as quizzes of ‘suspects and
witnesses’, everything has been done to
satisfy the aims of our oldest allies.
Is such deference justified?”
He asked: “The first question that
occurs to me is simple. Would the
British police do the same in identical
circumstances?”
Before adding: “Of course not.”
He said Portuguese police were capable
of conducting their own inquiry.
“This, therefore, is the the absurdity
of the situation in all its splendour.
In Portugal there’s a criminal
investigation with the same objective,
but our authorities are working, as
exclusive outsource workers, for another
country’s ongoing investigation.”
And he added: “Could it be that the
reopening of the case in Portugal was
simply designed to facilitate the
cooperation of Portuguese police at the
service of British police.
“If that is true, then there was
‘manipulation’ of the case. We can
conclude, without making conjectures,
that it reveals a good helping of
subservience which prejudices our
national sovereignty as a penal state.”
The article in Portuguese daily
newspaper Correio da Manha by the former
minister, who is now a university
lecturer, followed claims by a source
close to the investigation that this
week’s four day operation in Faro had
failed to produce a new lead.
He said: “We’re back where we were seven
years ago.”
All four men who were interviewed this
week are being treated as “persons of
special interest” or arguidos.
They were invited to be interviewed but
there have been no arrests. |
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