The green light was given with 21 votes in favor. The Permanent Commission approved the constitutional complaint against former congressman Roberto Vieira for the alleged crime of influence peddling. This, due to the publication of an audio in which he is heard asking a relative for 20 thousand dollars to lift a sanction on a fishing vessel in the Ministry of Production.
The former parliamentarian stated in the House of Commons, in his defense statement, that the aforementioned audio was “taken out of context.” In it, he is heard speaking with who is believed to be his cousin, businessman Guillermo Wenceslao Venegas.
This is the transcript of the audio that appears in the complaint:
-Vieira: “Listen, listen to me… this… tell him to give me 15, ask him for 20, take 5 yourself.”
-Venegas: “Not for me, because if you make us active, you help me too, do you understand?”
-Vieira: “It’s 15 now, tell him to give me 15.”
-Venegas: “You offered it to me, that’s why I told him.”
-Vieira: “Give me 5 tomorrow and 10 upon delivery, but you are not coming here to deliver the papers, nothing by phone, it is like it doesn’t exist, idiot, by phone or anything.” (…).”
After giving the green light to the report, with 25 votes in favor, 0 against and 1 abstention, the Permanent Commission approved the formation of the accusatory subcommittee, which will be made up of Congresswoman Lady Camones, to support the approved report and formulate the constitutional complaint before the Plenary of Congress.
VIEIRA: “AUDIO WAS TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT”
Vieira attended the Hemicycle today, together with his defense, to support his innocence.
“I am here to tell the truth, and what it costs a congressman of the Republic to confront the mafias. You can see in all the records that I was the first congressman; and here it is important (this date), January 2019, because I say it in February, the month of administrative vacations; and Congress works the first days of March; when it was my turn to preside in the first days of March, the working group, which the commission had given me to preside, did not even let me sit down. A few days later, an audio appears taken out of context, of a private matter, giving it an illicit criminal character. An illicit recording that is not valid anywhere in the world,” said the former legislator.
Constitutional complaint against former congressman Roberto Vieira.
“An illegal recording that is not valid anywhere in the world,” Vieira continued. “They put tape recorders in front of my bed. It is two hours long. They only take the extract. You know what it will mean for the congressman to have a microphone and a recorder placed in his bed; it will not be allowed anywhere in the world. This is what it costs when you fight against the mafia. It has two things: they want to kill you… they persecute you… they destroy your name… your reputation.”
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