Taking the bull by the horns, former interior minister Miguel Macedo has finally asked parliament to waive his protected status so that police investigating Golden Visa corruption can question him in the ongoing “Operation Labyrinth” that saw 11 arrests in November – most of them of people with high positions at the time in government.
According to Público, parliament’s ethic committee will be meeting tomorrow (Friday) to “analyse” Macedo’s request for his parliamentary immunity to be lifted.
It’s a process that can be long-winded, say newspapers, stressing Macedo is suspected of the crime of misfeasance – which, loosely translated, means abuse of power.
Fifty-six-year-old Macedo, a trained lawyer, is said to be in the investigation headlights for a number of Golden Visa issues, including the fast-tracking of entry permits for Libyans who wanted to come to Portugal for medical reasons, and a “weekend break” that he took with two of Labyrinth’s key players – notary institute boss António Figueiredo, who remains in police custody, and businessman Jaime Couto Alves, who is being kept under house arrest.
Both men are understood to have used the codename of “white horse” to refer to Macedo in various conversations tapped by investigators – but Macedo has stressed throughout the months since the scandal broke that he had nothing to do with any of it.
According to Rádio Renascença, he is thoroughly fed up with seeing his “good name and honour” dragged through the mud, and he wants to get his chance to set the record straight.
RR claims Macedo asked for his parliamentary immunity to be lifted after his resignation following the scandal – but, at the time, the Attorney General’s office did not consider it necessary.
