Lisbon City Council loses appeal but will continue to contest million-euro fine related to Russiagate

The Southern Central Administrative Court has ruled that Lisbon City Council's appeal against the one million euro fine it was ordered to pay was "unfounded" in the so-called Russiagate case, due to the city council, then led by Fernando Medina, sharing data on Russian anti-Putin activists.

In the decision, made on Friday and reported this Wednesday by Diário de Notícias, the judges responsible justify that they could not reach any other conclusion than to consider that the "municipality of Lisbon acted with intent, since it is demonstrated that its conduct violates duties of an administrative nature, and the municipality of Lisbon was aware of this violation."

It should be noted that this is the second defeat for Lisbon City Council in the context of a fine of 1.25 million euros, imposed by the National Data Protection Commission (CNPD) on the municipality, in 2022, for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation by "communicating the personal data of demonstration promoters to third parties".

The mayor, Carlos Moedas, has already responded and said that the municipality will have to file a new appeal.

Admitting that “resources are running out,” Moedas considers it his “duty,” as mayor, to “defend taxpayers’ money, resource after resource.”

"It's a topic that has left me in a very difficult situation, it's a topic from a previous government, which really shows what wasn't done well in that government," said Carlos Moedas, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a visit to the Lisbon Fire Brigade Regiment headquarters.

"The people of Lisbon don't deserve to pay almost a million euros for a mistake made by a previous executive, so I'll maintain this defensive stance," he added.

It should be noted that the case concerns the proceedings opened in 2021, after the municipality communicated to the Russian embassy in Portugal and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs the personal data of the promoters of a demonstration held at the embassy.