Manuel Fernando Araújo / Lusa
Former Prime Minister and former PS leader, José Sócrates
Former Prime Minister José Sócrates today criticized the “illegal and infamous” decision of the Court of Appeal to refer the Operation Marquis case to trial, considering that it cannot exist “without a ruling or without accusation”.
“I am very sorry to say to all those who they are very excited with the idea that there will be a trial, that it doesn’t seem to me that there can be a trial without a ruling or without an accusation”, said the accused at a press conference in Ericeira, broadcast on television.
The Lisbon Court of Appeal ruled this week refer for judgment the Operation Marquês case, with judge Francisco Henriques determining that the appeal is still pending has no suspensive effect.
The former socialist leader noted that this decision seems to him “illegalbecause it is a ruling that uses a obvious substantial change of factswhich changes the crime, which changes the criminal framework” without having “ever been able to defend” what it contains.
The criticism was addressed to a January ruling who noted a clerical error in the original indictment, resulting, in the former prime minister’s opinion, in a third indictment.
“No matter how hard the judge trieswill not be able to transform a ruling that is under challenge into a final ruling”, he highlighted.
In the TRL order, the judge accepted the appeal of José Pinto de Souza, cousin of the former prime minister, and also a defendant in the case, which will be analyzed by the Superior Court of Justice.
However, it grants you “merely devolutionary effect”, that is, only the analysis of the complaint is guaranteed, there is no suspensive effect on the process.
Sócrates also accused the Superior Council of the Judiciary of “abuse of power” in the creation of a working group to monitor and accelerate the processing of Operation Marquês.
“The decision to form a working group constitutes a blatant abuse of power. The extraordinary resolution to set up this working group also puts at risk the freedom and independence of judges, which must be guaranteed in relation to all powers”, he said.
“All the judges who intervene in the Marquês process will feel on their shoulders the inquisitorial eyes of the working group of the Superior Council of Judiciary”, he added.
In the Operation Marquis process, Sócrates was accused in 2017 of 31 crimesnamely passive corruption, money laundering, falsification of documents and tax fraud, but in the instructional decision.
As of April 9, 2021, or Judge Ivo Rosa decided to acquit the former governor of 25 of the 31 crimes, pronouncing him for trial only for three crimes of money laundering and three of forgery.
A later TRL decision would give reason to an appeal from the MPand in January ordered a total of 22 defendants to go to trial for 118 economic-financial crimes, revoking the instructive decision, which sent only José Sócrates, Carlos Santos Silvathe former minister Armando VaraRicardo Salgado and Sócrates’ former driver, João Perna.
In November, on the 10th anniversary of his arrest, the former prime minister compared Operation Marquês with Influencer: “the difference it makes choosing the judge”, he then wrote in an opinion article in Diário de Notícias, considering that there had been a “”.
“The only difference in relation to the recent Influencer Process is that, 10 years ago, they didn’t forget to choose the judge. The difference it makes choosing the judge”, he stressed.
José Sócrates was at Lisbon airport 10 years ago, when arriving from Paris, and a decade passed on that day The trial hasn’t started yet of Operation Marquês, a process marked by successive resources of the former Prime Minister.
