The defendant Diogo Lacerda Machado, lawyer, consultant, and friend of the Prime Minister, was required to provide a deposit of 150 thousand euros within 15 days and not to go abroad, having to hand over his passport to the custody of the court within 24 hours.

Vítor Escária, former chief of staff of Prime Minister, António Costa, was obliged not to go abroad and must hand over his passport to the custody of the court within 24 hours.

The president of Sines City Council, Nuno Mascarenhas, and administrators Rui Oliveira Neves and Afonso Salema, both from the company Start Campus, were subject to an Identity and Residence Term (TIR), the least serious coercive measure.

The company Start Campus, which is accused in the case, had to provide a deposit of 600 thousand euros within 15 days.

According to the statement from the Central Criminal Instruction Court, Judge Nuno Dias Costa considered that Diogo Lacerda Machado and Vítor Escária are "strongly indicted" in co-authorship and in the completed form of a crime of influence peddling.

For its part, it is understood that Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves are accused of co-authorship of a crime of influence peddling and a crime of offering an undue advantage.

In relation to the company Start Campus, the judge understood that it is "strongly indicted" for a crime of influence peddling and a crime of offering an undue advantage, the practice of which took place through administrators Afonso Salema and Rui Oliveira Neves.

The note sent by the court does not mention the indictment of any crime against the president of the Sines City Council.

The judge did not validate the crimes of malfeasance and active and passive corruption that were attributed to some defendants.

After the judge's interrogation of the defendants, which lasted four days, the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) requested preventive detention for Vítor Escária and Diogo Lacerda Machado.

For the mayor of Sines, Nuno Mascarenhas, the MP had asked for the suspension of the mandate, the ban on contacts and the ban on entering the municipality's facilities.

For the CEO of Start Campus Afonso Salema, the MP had requested a ban on contacts and a deposit of 200 thousand euros and for the company's administrator Rui Oliveira Neves a deposit of 100 thousand euros and a ban on contacts.

The Prime Minister, António Costa, who emerged associated with this case, was the target of the opening of an inquiry by the MP at the Supreme Court of Justice, a situation that led him to resign, with the President of the Republic scheduling early elections for 10 March 2024.

This investigation became public with the operation carried out last Tuesday by the MP, which involved more than 40 searches and led to the arrest of five people.

In total, there are nine defendants in the case, including the Minister of Infrastructure, João Galamba, the president of the Portuguese Environment Agency, Nuno Lacasta, the lawyer, former Secretary of State for Justice and former PS spokesperson João Tiago Silveira and the company Start Campus.

The process is related to the exploration of lithium in Montalegre and Boticas (both districts of Vila Real), with the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines, Setúbal, and with the project to build a data center (Data Center ) in the industrial and logistics zone of Sines by the company Start Campus.

According to the MP, the crimes of malfeasance, active and passive corruption of political officeholders and influence peddling are at stake.

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