Some of the relevant information in the Freeport investigation was obtained in England through administrative wiretaps, that is, allegedly made without the authorizations of a judge or of the British Secret Service.
This will be one of the issues addressed in tomorrow's meeting in Haia, the headquarters for Eurojust (EU Judiciary Cooperation), between the British and Portuguese police delegations and between British and Portuguese magistrates.
In Portugal, administrative wiretaps are not authorized. From Portugal, the attendees will be Cândida Almeida, from the Public Ministry, and Pedro Carmo and Moreira da Silva, both from PJ. The meeting was promoted by Eurojust after the English found money from the business in offshore companies based in that country.
The objective now is to formally exchange the available information, in order to understand if there was, or not, a payoff - estimated at €4 million - for the construction license for Freeport, in Alcochete, approved by the prior Council of Ministers for António Guterres when José Sócrates (current PM) was the secretary of state of the Environment. 16 November 2008 in the3arguidos.net
Now, police authorities in London have requested that a team be set up to investigate the case. However, the Procurator-General, Pinto Monteiro, has already refuted this idea, according to TSF radio.
So far, the British investigation into Freeport has detected accounts in British offshore banks as well as securities held by companies which have either been traced back to, or have links with, Portugal.
As a consequence, financial information has been collected that points to high sums of money being sent to a Lisbon lawyers office destined to various Portuguese personalities acting as business intermediaries. 09 October 2008 in portugalresident.com
