Twins case: Supreme Court closes case of name change of inquiry committee

Following a complaint from the children's mother, the Supreme Court had ordered Parliament to stop using the reference to the "twins" in the Parliamentary Committee, but AR appealed the decision because it considered it to be "an interference"

The Supreme Administrative Court (STA) has decided to dismiss the action to change the name of the commission of inquiry into the case of the Portuguese-Brazilian twins, considering that the issue had been overcome with the use of the full name. In a ruling by the President of the Assembly of the Republic, it is stated that the Supreme Administrative Court decided on Thursday "to dismiss the instance, due to the supervening futility of the dispute".

The court concluded that the order of January 9 for parliament to stop using the name "Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry - Twins treated with the drug Zolgensma", after summoning the children's mother , "is fully executed with the guidance given by the president of the Assembly of the Republic when he requested the commission of inquiry (and it accepted) that the full name be used".

The commission of inquiry now always uses its full name , that is, "Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry to verify the legality and conduct of political leaders allegedly involved in the provision of health care to two children (twins) treated with the drug 'Zolgensma'".

On January 22, the leaders' conference decided that the Assembly of the Republic would appeal the STA's decision that imposed the name change of the inquiry committee, considering that this court invaded the powers of the parliament. The committee itself had already decided in the same sense days before.

On that day, the spokesperson for the leaders' conference argued that the STA ruling ultimately constitutes "interference" in the powers of the Assembly of the Republic as a sovereign body . Jorge Paulo Oliveira added that the leaders' conference understood that the limits of the request for subpoena by the children's mother that led to this decision had even been exceeded.

The President of the Assembly of the Republic had also already considered that there were grounds for parliament to appeal the STA's decision on changing the name of the inquiry committee. In an opinion to which Lusa had access, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco argued that the "decision to set up an ad hoc parliamentary inquiry committee (CPI), which results in the attribution of a formal name to the CPI that materializes in the choice of a name, constitutes (...) a political act that only parliament has the power to take".

"The choice of the name of the CPI does not appear to be an issue with independent relevance in relation to the aforementioned political decision to set up the commission, and is therefore excluded from the jurisdiction of the administrative courts", stated the document signed by the President of the Assembly of the Republic.