Portugal’s Attorney General, Joana Marques Vidal, confirmed to parliament that the Justice Department continues to investigate the government's purchase of submarines, torpedoes and of Pandur military vehicles, three deals done when Paulo Portas was Minister of Defense between 2004 and 2005.
This was in response to suggestions that the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry, which is looking into the matter, was to be stood down.
The three deals involve substantial state expenditure. The final cost of the submarines was €1 billion, the vehicles were acquired for €344 million and the torpedoes cost €46 million.
The commission is continuing its investigation and Paluo Portas maintains his plea of innocence in his involvement in any bribes paid out by the German consortium which sold the equipment.
A trial in Lisbon of those involved in the submarine deal ostensibly ended in February 2014 when nobody was found to have done anything wrong at all in Portugal, despite German executives from Germany's Ferrostaal already having received sentences and fines in their own country for bribery.
Portugal's Public Prosecutor reviewed the case and in a stinging report decreed that the Lisbon’s Appeal Court should cancel the judgement that saw all 10 defendants walk free despite serious accusations of having benefitted from €30 million in secret payments from the German consortium that supplied the equipment.
The Public Prosecutor commented that the judges in the case had made errors and had displayed poor reasoning when the facts pointed to the guilt of those on trial, in other words the judges are either stupid or crooked, in her esteemed opinion.
