Manuel de Almeida / Lusa
The instructional decision that suggests that the two cases of Operation Marquis be tried together yet formally arrived at Judge Susana Seca. The start of the trial is scheduled for tomorrow.
With the beginning of the judgment of Operation Marquis scheduled for July 3, 2025, a procedural impasse It can compromise your organization. According to, Judge Susana Seca, responsible for chairning the trial, has not yet formally received the instructional decision of colleague Sofia Marinho Pires, who, about three weeks, pronounced José Sócrates and Carlos Santos Silva for three capital bleaching crimes.
In the 51 -page order, Marine Judge Pires expressly recommended that its decision be communicated to the main proceedings of Operation Marquis, to run in the Lisbon criminal judgments, for any junction of the two cases. However, so far, this formal communication has not yet occurredmaking it impossible for Susana drought to deliberate on the junction of the processes.
This delay raises doubts about the processing of the judgment, which happens more than a decade after the detention of Socratesin 2014, at Lisbon airport. Although the process was considered urgent by the authorities, bureaucratic procedures continue to be delayed, aggravated by the fact that Socrates’ defense announced, on the day of reading the instructional decision (June 11), the intention to appeal, alleging nullity.
The current scenario results from years of contradictory decisions in the courts. In 2017, the Public Prosecution Service ACUSOU Socrates of 31 crimesincluding corruption and tax fraud, in a total of 28 defendants. Instructional judge Ivo Rosa would eventually lift most of those involved, including the former prime minister of corruption, maintaining only accusations of money laundering and forgery.
More recently, the Lisbon Court of Appeal considered that there was sufficient evidence to resume judgment along the original prosecution of 2017. This decision led Sofia Marinho Pires to argue that the lawsuits They should be judged togetherto avoid duplication of evidence and contradictions in the verdicts.
If the judge Susana dries accepts this proposal, will have to grant a period of 50 days defenses to react to the new accusation – a procedure that can postpone the trial and even put some crimes at risk of prescription. But without access to the official order, the process remains blocked, and it seems that the works will begin on the scheduled day, with or without the merger of the processes.
Socrates complains to the European Court
The former prime minister also formalized this Tuesday a complaint against the Portuguese State in the European Court of Human Rights (TEDH). José Sócrates considers that it was a “written period”In 2024 that revived the Operation Marquis process, which was” dead. “
“It was the drop of water that led me to decide for a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (TEDH). It’s too much,” José Sócrates told a press conference in Brussels, flanked by lawyer Christophe Marchand.
The former Prime Minister considered that the “lapse of writing” is “a trick that served only to Manipulate the prescription deadlines And wanting to take the process to trial: “The lapse of writing is just that.”
Four years after the instructional decision of Judge Ivo Rosa, José Sócrates advocated that the judges “invented a lapse of writing,” he criticized.
Former Prime Minister José Sócrates also assured that he will be present in court if the judgment of the Operation Marquis process begins on Thursday, advocating that “it has no pronunciation, nor has an accusation.”
“Surely I will attend. If there is judgment, I will“Said José Sócrates.” But there may be no “judgment, the former prime minister added.
José Sócrates explained that it moves to move forward with an action against the Portuguese state is a “RIGHT OF LAW OF LAW”.
