“The term ‘attack’ is very strong, but we can say that some of the structural principles of the rule of law are being questioned here”, stated the president of the ASJP to Lusa.
Nuno Matos particularly criticized the fact that an “insufficiently detailed” anonymous denunciation took three years to investigate, and that recently, the Attorney General’s Office at the Supreme Court of Justice rejected Ivo Rosa’s request to access several inquiries he was targeted in, all of which were archived.
“How can such an insufficiently detailed, inconsistent anonymous denunciation, as has been publicly described, take three years to investigate? Were these facts investigated […] or was a broader investigation conducted in an attempt to find something over a long period?”, he questioned.
According to the ASJP leader, the case reached “a new level” when Ivo Rosa was denied awareness of the investigation on the “grounds that he had no legitimate interest in knowing what was investigated”.
“Regardless of the various more or less conspiratorial theories that may arise concerning this denial of access to information, it conveys an idea of opaqueness which is not positive”, emphasized Nuno Matos.
The newspaper Expresso reported on October 24, based on information from Ivo Rosa himself, that the Attorney General’s Office at the Supreme Court of Justice refused access to three criminal inquiries concerning the magistrate that were archived.
The consultation was rejected by the same deputy attorney general who archived an inquiry related to suspicions of corruption, embezzlement, and money laundering, concluding that the original denunciation “lacked any credibility”.
In that final statement, the prosecutor ordered the destruction of the process, which, according to the weekly, has not yet occurred.
Ivo Rosa was responsible for the indictment of the Marquês Operation in 2021, having dismissed a series of crimes that the former prime minister José Sócrates (2005-2011) was accused of by the Attorney General’s Office.
The judge, then positioned at the Central Criminal Investigation Court, has been working at the Lisbon Court of Appeal since 2022.
According to Expresso, in recent years the magistrate was investigated in eight criminal inquiries: five by the Lisbon Court of Appeal and three by the Supreme Court of Justice.
In the case of the Lisbon Court of Appeal, the Attorney General’s Office authorized the processes to be consulted by the judge, who will file a complaint to the Attorney General’s Office against the refusal received at the Supreme Court of Justice.
The case was initially revealed by CNN/TVI.
