National PJ director under investigation: what Cabreiro said in Football Leaks and Aida Freitas courts
Carlos Cabreiro, national director of the Judicial Police, is being investigated for abuse of power and perjury. Observador has analysed his testimony in two trials.
PJ searches reopen debate over illegal wiretaps on A5
The Judicial Police (PJ), an institution that typically carries out searches at suspects' doors, found itself on the opposite side this week: the premises and work equipment of some of its officials were the subject of proceedings ordered by the Public Ministry (MP). At the centre of the investigation is Carlos Cabreiro, national director of the PJ and successor to Luís Neves in the post, suspected of abuse of power and aggravated perjury, according to the Attorney General's Office.
According to observador.pt, to understand the case it is necessary to go back almost eleven years, to 21 October 2015, when a meeting took place in a service area of the A5 motorway in Oeiras. On that day, Nélio Lucas — then CEO of the Doyen investment fund —, collaborator Pedro Henriques and lawyer Aníbal Pinto, who represented hacker Rui Pinto, met. The meeting was monitored by two PJ inspectors, Hugo Monteiro and Aida Freitas, tasked with trying to listen to the conversation. This meeting would later form part of the Football Leaks investigation.
Inspector admits she heard nothing of the conversation — and signed report without reading it
More than five years later, in January 2021, during the Football Leaks case trial, inspector Aida Freitas declared in court that she heard nothing of the conversation that took place on the A5. The statement created an immediate problem: there are two external diligence reports (RDE) that describe that conversation, one of them signed by the inspector herself, who admitted not having read it "properly" before signing. Freitas's statements provoked strong controversy, gave rise to a disciplinary process and culminated in a charge, order for trial and trial for perjury.
The question resurfaced with renewed force when inspector David Freitas, husband of the defendant, brought to light documentation previously unknown: a mission order request, an RDE and a service report allegedly related to the A5 diligence. These documents raised suspicions about the conducting of illegal environmental wiretaps during the meeting and about the possible lack of knowledge — or denial — of this fact by the PJ officials who testified in court.
The documentation delivered by David Freitas is itself the subject of doubts and contradictions, as observador.pt has already revealed. The MP carried out searches at the inspector's workplace, seized his mobile telephone and copied the contents of his computer and email box.
Criminal complaints against Cabreiro and postponement of sentence
Based on this documentation, David Freitas and Aníbal Pinto filed criminal complaints against Carlos Cabreiro, which were the origin of this week's searches. The weight of the doubts was sufficient for the judge responsible for Aida Freitas's trial to postpone the reading of the sentence, reopening the hearing to request further information from the PJ and hear new inspectors.
Cabreiro gave evidence in court on two separate occasions: on 15 April 2021, in the Football Leaks case trial, and on 6 March of this year, in the proceedings against Aida Freitas. Observador has gathered and analysed both statements.
What Cabreiro said — and what he did not say
In his first statement, which lasted only 16 minutes, Cabreiro described his position at the time of the facts: he was coordinator of the cybercrime investigation section of the Lisbon Directorate, which later transferred to the Cyber Crime and Technological Crime Combat Unit (UNC3T). "I was involved in this process from the beginning. I was the coordinator of the investigation section that at that time was responsible for and had responsibility for this investigation," he stated. He explained that at a later stage, his connection to the case became "less close", following the transfer to the UNC3T.
When asked to detail his coordination role, Cabreiro referred to generic functions: "guidance", "dispatch of investigations", "requests for urgency" and "promotion of possible diligences". He identified chief inspector Rogério Bravo as responsible for the operational component and José Amador as inspector in charge of the investigation — both targeted in the complaints filed by Aníbal Pinto and David Freitas.
In his second statement, given on 6 March of this year — only weeks before being appointed national director of the PJ —, Cabreiro minimised the extent of his involvement in the Football Leaks case, describing it as "indirect". The MP, the judge and the defendant's defence focused questions on the A5 diligence, on the conversation Cabreiro is said to have had with Aida Freitas about the signed RDE, on the existence of two separate reports and on the procedures adopted.
The current national director stressed that he never participated in fieldwork diligences in this case. "In the field, very little. I was informed of the result of the diligences. As coordinator of a section with hundreds of investigations, it is natural that I could not follow in detail all these situations. I was concerned with being informed about what was going to happen," he stated.
October 2015 meeting on A5 at the heart of Football Leaks case
The October 2015 meeting at the Oeiras service area played a central role in the Football Leaks case, supporting part of the charge made against the defendants. The circumstances in which the surveillance was conducted — the means used, the type of monitoring and the possible conducting of environmental wiretaps — are precisely the core of the suspicions that prompted the investigation now underway against Cabreiro. The outcome of Aida Freitas's trial, suspended pending new evidence, depends in part on the answer to these same questions.
Source: Google News PT — Crime (pt)