The São João Novo Court in Porto today acquitted an ASAE inspector accused of disclosing contents related to inspections, details of monitored economic agents, and alert emails from the system in a 2019 television interview.
The defendant was accused of document misappropriation, unauthorized access, and breach of official secrecy.
On January 14, at the start of the trial, the defendant denied giving the interview.
At that time, he admitted to reporting “a series of issues” occurring within the Food and Economic Safety Authority (ASAE) but always through official channels.
He added, “I never hid that I made complaints to the authorities.”
Despite acknowledging that he was contacted by phone and email by the journalist who produced the television report, the defendant insisted he never agreed to an interview, which featured a distorted voice and shadowed figure.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) alleged that the inspector, during a televised interview aired on January 24, 2019, accessed ASAE’s database without any professional justification and divulged various inspection-related contents, data of monitored economic agents, and system alert emails.
“Furthermore, while in possession of two case files entrusted to him for proceedings, he not only failed to return them when requested by his superiors but also handed them over to the journalist or someone appointed by her,” it stated.
The accusation further highlighted that the defendant’s actions led to the broadcast of a subsequent television report on February 14, 2019, showing those processes publicly as reflective of a system security failure at ASAE, “tarnishing the institution’s public image and seriously damaging its credibility.”
