"As far as we know, and as far as I know at this very moment, the lifting of parliamentary immunity has now been requested for three PSD deputies. I do not know the details, I do not know the charges other than through the media, I will have the opportunity to talk to the deputies about this matter", said Hugo Soares, in statements to journalists, in parliament.

The Public Prosecution Service requested the lifting of immunity of the PSD deputies Luís Newton, Carlos Eduardo Reis and Margarida Saavedra within the scope of the Tutti Frutti process, in order to constitute them as defendants and collect statements, according to the order of the Central Criminal Investigation Court, advanced on Tuesday night by CNN Portugal and to which Lusa also had access

According to this document, the MP considers that Carlos Eduardo Reis is strongly suspected of active corruption, prevarication and influence peddling. Luís Newton is strongly suspected of passive corruption and prevarication, while Margarida Saavedra is strongly suspected of qualified fraud.

Questioned about whether he maintains his confidence in those deputies, Hugo Soares replied that he will have the opportunity to talk to them and "confront them with what is in the public news", adding that "in due time" he will make decisions.

The PSD parliamentary leader stressed that the investigation has been going on for many years and that the deputies had already requested their own constitution as defendants, "which never happened".

Also questioned about the conclusions of the internal inquiry that the PSD president announced in May last year that would be opened to investigate the suspicions raised by the "Tutti Frutti Operation", Hugo Soares only said that this question would have to be put to the president of the National Council of Jurisdiction.

The three social democratic deputies took office on March 26, following the last legislative elections, and the requests for lifting of immunity will now have to be considered by the Committee on Transparency and Status of Deputies.

The operation dubbed "Tutti Frutti" has been investigating since 2018 alleged favors to PS and PSD members, through agreements and public contracts, with suspicions of passive corruption, influence peddling, economic participation in business and prohibited financing.

In May last year, and after a TVI/CNN report that recovered the process, the president of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, announced the opening of an internal inquiry to investigate the suspicions raised by the "Tutti Frutti Operation", whose conclusions have not yet been made public.

Read Also: Tutti-Frutti. MP requests lifting of immunity of three PSD deputies (Portuguese version)