The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, stated on Friday that “there will be an opportunity to better understand what happened” in the case of the wiretaps conducted on former Prime Minister António Costa without court knowledge, stressing that such situations “should not occur in the future.”
“Naturally, there will be an opportunity to better understand what happened and, above all, draw a consequence for the future,” he said during statements to journalists, at the sidelines of a visit to Monaco. “If it happened, without adhering to the law, it should not happen again in the future,” he added.
He further remarked that “it is possible that in the future there will be a clearer understanding of what transpired.”
The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) acknowledged on Friday that seven wiretaps involving the former prime minister were identified and had not been reported to the Supreme Court “due to various technical reasons.”
In a statement released today, the PGR explained that recently, “during a new analysis of all wiretaps conducted” under Operation Influencer, seven intercepts were identified, “in which Prime Minister António Costa was involved as a participant, a fact that, due to various technical reasons, was not initially detected.”
Of these seven wiretaps, six were contact attempts, the PGR noted in the same statement, emphasizing that “all telephone wiretaps conducted under these processes [Operation Influencer] were timely presented for periodic review to the Investigating Judge of the Central Court of Criminal Investigation.”
The PGR’s reaction comes in response to a report by Diário de Notícias (DN), which revealed that the former prime minister António Costa was subject to interceptions 22 times without the knowledge of higher courts, concerning conversations with suspects in Operation Influencer.
The investigation, overseen by the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP), reportedly omitted the wiretaps from the Supreme Court and the Central Court of Criminal Investigation.
The wiretaps were allegedly conducted between 2020 and 2022, involving contacts with João Galamba, then Deputy Secretary of State and Energy Secretary, Lacerda Machado, a friend and former government consultant in the privatization of TAP, and João Pedro Matos Fernandes, Minister of Environment and Climate Action at the time.
At least seven wiretaps involving António Costa were not communicated to the Supreme Court due to “technical reasons.” The situation has sparked indignation and calls for clarification from various political figures.
Carolina Pereira Soares | 19:02 – 21/11/2025
