The trial of the “Marqués Operation” begins on July 3, more than a decade after the arrest of the former head of the José Socrates government.
Arrested on November 21, 2014 at Lisbon airport, José Socrates was the first and Only the former head of the Government will be arrested preventively in Portugalwith 288 days in the prison of Évora and 42 more days in house arrest.
I just arrived at Lisbon airport on a flight from Paris, the former prime minister was arrested as part of an investigation of the Central Department of Criminal Investigation and Action (DCIAP), which It suspects fiscal fraud crimes, money laundering and corruption.
The next day, José Socrates accompanied the searches made at his residence, being present to the judge, in the Central Court of Criminal Instruction (TCIC), for the first judicial interrogation, which lasted for the next day.
November 24, they are decreed Preliminary detention to the former prime minister. Only almost a year later, on September 4, 2015, Socrates moves to house arrestAfter months with several rejected immediate liberation requests.
In the following month, Socrates’ defense offers a new request to request immediate release. On October 16, it is launched, but it is forbidden to be absent from Portugal.
Judgment scheduled for July 3
Little more than a decade after their arrest, and with several funds and procedural steps delivered to the courts that successively delayed several moments of the process, the The former prime minister’s trial will finally begin on July 3Eight years after the prosecutor’s accusation.
Judge Susana Seca, who will preside over the “Marquis Operation” trial, decided on Monday to mark the start of the hearings, after a meeting with the defense lawyers, but in which the Socrates’ defense refused to participate Understand that the process has not yet exceeded the instruction phase and, for this reason, there can be no trial.
The trial will take place on the Justice Campus in Lisbon, and despite having an urgent status, the sessions will be suspended during the judicial holidays. The sessions will take place three days a week and They will be interrupted from July 16 to August 31.
In the bank of the defendants, the former prime minister will sit José Socrates and 21 other defendants of the “Marqués Operation”. Among them are former banker Ricardo Salgado, the former men of Food Men of Portugal Telecom, Henrique Granadeiro and Zeinal Bava, the businessman of Lena Group Joaquim Baroque and Helder Bataglia, the businessman of Luso-Angolan who founded Escom, a company linked to the Holy Spirit group.
In a press release sent to the writing rooms shortly before the date for the beginning of his trial, José Socrates states that “At this time there is no accusation or pronunciation” my “For this reason there can be no trial”.
In addition, the former prime minister has harsh criticism of the State, who says that “he manipulated the distribution of the process, he overcame the selection of the investigation judge, he transmitted the arrest at the airport and justified the arrest prior to the trial with an escape danger, although the views entered the country, they did not leave.”
“This is the true face of Marqués’ process – Abuse, agency, violence“He accuses.
The former prime minister states that “what really remains of these twelve years of Marqués is his miserable trace of abuse and violence. The Portuguese state manipulated the distribution of the process, issuing the choice of the investigation judge “.
Socrates was accused in 2017 for the Prosecutor’s Office (MP) of 31 crimes, namely, Passive corruption, capital whitening, falsification of documents and fiscal fraud. However, in the instruction decision, on April 9, 2021, Judge Ivo Rosa decided to free the former ruler of 25 of the 31 crimes, which pronounced it for trial for three crimes of capital laundering and three falsification documents.
In January 2024, a decision of the relationship was almost fully recovered the prosecution of the parliamentarian and ordered the trip to the trial of 22 accused of 118 economic and financial crimes, revoking the instruction decision of Judge Ivo Rosa, who referred only to the trial José Socrates, the businessman Carlos Santos Silva, the former Minister Armando Vara, Ricardo Salgo and the former driver of Socrates Joá.
ADVERTISINGJosé Socrates, 67 and Prime Minister from 2005 to 2011, is responsible for Suspicion of 22 crimes: Three of corruption, 13 of money laundering and six of fiscal fraud.
