Miguel Arruda, the Chega (extreme right populist party) National Deputy elected from the Azores, is suspected of having stolen suitcases from the arrivals luggage racks at Lisbon and Ponta Delgada airports when he was traveling to and from the Azores at the beginning and end of the parliamentary working week. The PSP (police) searched yesterday at the MP’s homes in Lisbon and São Miguel in the Azores. The news was first reported by the Público newspaper.
Meanwhile, according to Correio da Manhã, the MP was arrested at Lisbon airport. His defense has confirmed that he has been accused of the crime and that it is up to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to request that his parliamentary immunity be lifted. PSP agents left Miguel Arruda’s residence in Lisbon with three suitcases.
Speaking to CMTV, the MP’s lawyer said that it was “a hasty operation” with “some political exploitation”. José Manuel Castro, who has also defended neo-Nazi Mário Machado and former judge Rui Fonseca e Castro, did not clarify what the seized suitcases referred to. Miguel Arruda was a sergeant in the army and is currently a senior environmental technician at an inter-municipal company. On social media, according to Correio da Manhã, he often interacts with Mário Machado, who has been convicted of racial discrimination, bodily harm, possession of illegal weapons, defamation, kidnapping and extortion, and has considered him “a political prisoner”. The newspaper says he has also praised the Estado Novo, giving “cheers” to the dictator Salazar.
Miguel Arruda is one of the deputies from the Chega caucus who, in addition to being a member of the Agriculture and Fisheries Committee, is an alternate member, among other committees, of the Committee on Transparency and the Status of Members of Parliament and the eventual follow-up committee on the implementation and monitoring of the Anti-Corruption Agenda.
Miguel Arruda, 40, has a degree in Biological and Health Sciences, a postgraduate degree in Food Safety and Public Health, a postgraduate degree in Quality Engineering, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences, and a Master’s degree in Environment, Health, and Safety from the University of the Azores.
The leader of Chega in the Azores, José Pacheco, does not want to make any statements about these investigations for the time being.
It was also impossible to hear the Deputy under investigation, Manuel Arruda, was contacted by CM newspaper. Chega has yet to react to the suspicions surrounding the member of the Portuguese National Parliament.
This news, published by all the national media and confirmed by the Public Security Police, has surprised the Azores greatly.
In Azorean political circles, it was surprising that the CHEGA MP was involved in the alleged theft of suitcases from the walkways at Ponta Delgada and Lisbon airports.

In Correio dos Açores-Natalino Viveiros, director

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