Twin sisters case: Nuno Rebelo de Sousa submits 16 WhatsApp screenshots to Public Prosecutor's Office
The defence of Nuno Rebelo de Sousa submitted to the Public Prosecutor's Office 16 screenshots of WhatsApp messages exchanged with Lacerda Sales in 2019. The Judicial Police suspect that the conversations were deleted from the former State Secretary's mobile phone.
Defence submits WhatsApp messages to Public Prosecutor's Office regarding treatment of Portuguese-Brazilian twin sisters
The defence of Nuno Rebelo de Sousa submitted to the Public Prosecutor's Office 16 screenshots of WhatsApp conversations exchanged between the son of the former President of the Republic and the former State Secretary for Health, António Lacerda Sales, at the end of 2019. According to reports by executivedigest.sapo.pt, the messages concern the case of Portuguese-Brazilian twin sisters treated with the drug Zolgensma.
The screenshots were sent directly to the prosecutors in the case, in which Nuno Rebelo de Sousa is currently accused of misconduct in office and abuse of power. Their significance stems from the fact that the Judicial Police did not find these conversations on Lacerda Sales's mobile phone during the searches carried out, raising suspicion that the former government official had previously deleted them.
According to Expresso, the records cover the period between November and December 2019, coinciding with the contacts related to the twin sisters case.
Defence contests that twin sisters were topic of November meeting
One of the most contested points in the case concerns a meeting held on 7 November 2019 at the Ministry of Health. The Public Prosecutor's Office argues that at this meeting, Nuno Rebelo de Sousa asked Lacerda Sales to pressure Santa Maria Hospital to schedule consultations for the two children and to accelerate access to Zolgensma.
Lacerda Sales had already confirmed that the twin sisters case was addressed at this meeting. However, the defence of Nuno Rebelo de Sousa presents an opposite version: the matter was not discussed between the two of them at that meeting, which had as its sole topic an exchange between Portuguese and Brazilian doctors and businesspeople, in the context of the Web Summit, and also had the attendance of professionals and businesspeople from Brazil.
The first screenshots submitted to the Public Prosecutor's Office show Nuno Rebelo de Sousa thanking Lacerda Sales for holding the meeting, with no reference whatsoever to the twin sisters.
Timeline points to reference to children only three days later
The chronological sequence of the messages is central to the defence's thesis. According to Expresso, it is in a WhatsApp exchange that occurred on the evening of 10 November — three days after the meeting — that Nuno Rebelo de Sousa first mentions trying to help two Portuguese-Brazilian twin sisters with spinal muscular atrophy.
If the screenshots correspond to the entirety and sequence of the relevant conversations, that would be the first moment in which the matter of the children appears in the messages now submitted to the prosecutors.
Four days later, on 14 November, Lacerda Sales replied explaining that Zolgensma was an innovative and very recent therapy, and that a referral from the National Health Service would be necessary for an initial assessment consultation, adding that he could try to help in this matter.
The conversations made available by the defence extend until 21 December 2019, the date on which Nuno Rebelo de Sousa informed Lacerda Sales that the twin sisters were arriving in Portugal during the Christmas period.
Judicial Police found traces of conversations through indirect route
The elements now presented by the defence contrast with the results of the forensic examination of Lacerda Sales's mobile phone. The investigators did not locate WhatsApp conversations between the former State Secretary and Nuno Rebelo de Sousa, despite the investigation having concluded that both communicated several times, particularly at the end of 2019.
The officers eventually found traces of these communications through an alternative route. When analysing conversations between Lacerda Sales and Luís Pinheiro — former clinical director of Santa Maria Hospital and also an accused in the case — they encountered old messages from Nuno Rebelo de Sousa that had been forwarded.
The investigation also detected the absence, in the same application, of conversations between Lacerda Sales and his chief of staff and his personal secretary. According to Expresso, the Judicial Police concluded in an official document that these elements point to the possibility that the former government official deleted messages exchanged with these contacts before the searches at his residence, and that the deleted communications could be relevant to the case.
Lacerda Sales received accusation with "enormous surprise"
Nuno Rebelo de Sousa and António Lacerda Sales are among the accused charged by the Public Prosecutor's Office with misconduct in office and abuse of power in connection with the case relating to the treatment of the Portuguese-Brazilian twin sisters.
Following knowledge of the accusation, the defence of Lacerda Sales stated that the former State Secretary received it with "enormous surprise". Lawyer Paula Santiago Morais told Expresso that Lacerda Sales is abroad, awaiting his return to confirm whether he will continue to represent him in the case.
The submission of the 16 screenshots adds new elements to the investigation, in particular regarding the chronology of contacts between the two accused and the moment at which the twin sisters case was effectively begun to be handled between them.
Source: RTP