The headquarters of the Socialist Party of Portugal are searched due to a corruption investigation

This Thursday, the Portuguese Police carried out a search at the headquarters of the Socialist Party (PS) in the capital, Lisbon, as part of an investigation into an alleged corruption plot involving a former socialist advisor and related to the awarding of irregular contracts in Portuguese municipalities, with losses amounting to almost two million euros.

“The Socialist Party confirms that the Judicial Police is at the national headquarters of the Socialist Party, carrying out proceedings related to activities that are attributed to one of its workers,” it said in a statement.

The PS has made it clear that the political party, as such, “is not the object of the police investigation.” “The Socialist Party is collaborating with the Police in everything requested by them in order to ensure the proper conduct of investigations and full respect for the principles and rules of the rule of law,” he argued.

The Police have executed, in total, 60 search warrants in homes and 32 in other municipalities in the Lisbon metropolitan area led by the socialists as part of an investigation for crimes ranging from prevarication or falsification of documents to aggravated tax fraud.

“To date, four arrests have been made for misdemeanors, one arrest for a felony charge of illegal possession of weapons, and formal charges have been filed against 37 defendants,” the police force said in a statement.

Among those investigated for the plot are Duarte Moral, former advisor to former Prime Minister António Costa and his wife, as well as Miguel Coelho, a former official from the Santa Maria Maior district of Lisbon who was a deputy for the Socialist Party between 1995 and 2019.