Following stories in Portugal’s newspapers quoting the Secretary General of Portugal’s intelligence agency SIRP as saying the country is “prepared” for a terrorist threat – but giving no further details – Euro MP Ana Gomes has set the cat among pigeons, claiming Portugal is at the centre of a network financing terrorism.
Socialist firebrand Gomes told journalists in Brussels yesterday that she has already presented a number of complaints to various authorities.
“At issue are money laundering networks financing terrorist organizations,” she confirmed. “I have presented complaints to the government, the Attorney General, the Bank of Portugal and to international entities like Interpol.”
Gomes added that she has “concrete names and other data” but that she cannot yet reveal these.
In a tweet in reply to our own queries, Gomes simply added that “there must be urgent investigation” by “the competent authorities”.
Gomes explained at the same meeting that she had also submitted a complaint to the Portuguese Attorney General over the role of former secretary of state for fiscal affairs Paulo Núncio in the million-euro IVA pardon granted to the company Intelligent Life Solutions cited in the Golden Visa case and whose former boss is also implicated in Operation Marquês.
According to national tabloid Correio da Manhã, the meeting was centred on migration and asylum, and also attended by other Portuguese Euro MPs, Carlos Coelho and Nuno Melo.
While Ana Gomes refuted press stories claiming refugees “did not want to come to Portugal” – suggesting it was more the fault of bureaucracy surrounding asylum applications – Coelho countered: “We are at war,” stressing that while Portugal “has to take in refugees”, it also has to defend itself.
According to Coelho, “thousands of terrorists” have arrived in Europe on the pretext of being refugees.
But as newspapers today announce, the secretary general of SIRP (the System of Information of the Republic of Portugal) says Portugal is prepared for a terrorist threat.
Leaving a two-hour meeting yesterday where he addressed the parliamentary defence commission, Júlio Pereira told reporters the session had “gone well”.
The president of the commission, PSD MP Marco António Costa was equally limited in his comments, telling reporters simply that it was “useful” for MPs to “receive information” on SIRP.
Photo: EU PARLIAMENT
