Former economy minister Manuel Pinho is complaining to the European Court of Human Rights due to being only given 50 days to request the opening of a pre-trial hearing in the accusation against him in the case known as EDP. In a statement sent to Lusa, his defence team stresses that “prosecutors have been investigating for 11 years, they took a year and a day to lodge a 750-page accusation with 80 appendices and dozens of witness statements, and then they don’t want to give more than a few weeks for the defence to have time to prepare with the minimum of seriousness”. The lawyers rail that prosecutors are seeking to implement “a gagging regime (…) This creates a situation that would not happen in any European country, so we are lodging a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights”.
