The head of the Portuguese Army, General Rovisco Duarte, has informed MPs that he can not reveal the list of recovered equipment and armaments stolen from the Tancos base last year, because it’s a secret.
The news of the Army’s refusal to inform parliament was sent just hours before the General was due to be interviewed by the Parliamentary Committee for National Defence which was keen to know what had been recovered after the June 2017 robbery.
General Duarte explained that the list had been drawn up by the Judicial Police and that it had been sent to the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action which was responsible for investigating the serious breach and that the report has been stamped ‘Confidential’ so he could not reveal its contents.
Citing parts of the report from the Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the investigation into the theft from the Tancos supply base, Expresso reported that in addition to the 9mm ammunition, additional material is missing, such as tear gas grenades, a hand grenade and other munitions all representing, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, "a danger to internal security."
The parliamentary hearing was requested by the CDS-PP, the PS and the Secretaries-General of the Internal Security System and the Republic's Information System, “as a matter of urgency.”
The CDS-PP already had spotted that the information published by Expresso contradicted statements made by the General in October 2017, regarding the recovery of the military material stolen from the Tancos base.
