Manuel De Almeida / Lusa
Ricardo Salgado (L), former president of BES, leaving the Central Criminal Investigation Court
The court decided this Tuesday to suspend the prison sentence of former banker Ricardo Salgado, sentenced to 13 years for having Alzheimer’s disease.
In the session that took place at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, judge Ana Paula Rosa decided to impose a single sentence of 13 years in prison to the former president of Banco Espírito Santo (BES), suspended for the same period, considering that Ricardo Salgado does not have the health conditions to serve his sentence in a prison, due to his Alzheimer’s disease that you were diagnosed with.
“It is undoubtedly clear that Ricardo Salgado suffers from a psychic anomaly”, diagnosed and developed after the acts for which he was sentenced to two prison sentences of six years and three months and eight years, the legal culmination of which was decided.
In the process that resulted from the so-called EDP caseRicardo Salgado was sentenced, in 2024, to six years and three months in prison for having corrupted the former minister Manuel Pinhoso that it benefits the Espírito Santo Group (GES) in urban processes, among others.
As a result of the Operation Marquês case, the former banker was sentenced, in 2022, to eight years in prison for abuse of trustfor having diverted, in 2011, 10.7 million euros from GES.
The last forensic examination requested by the court to determine whether or not Ricardo Salgado can serve the prison sentences to which he was sentenced concluded that the former banker is unable to understand Why serve time?
“Although it may retain a very generic understanding of the existence of a judicial process, this will simply be the mechanical replication of indications that it is in an expert context, without integrating the true axiological notion of the process, namely the relationship between the facts and the penalty, the reason why it is applied, its duration and the purpose of its execution”, states the document dated May 11, to which Lusa had access.
Ricardo Salgado’s defense has maintained that, as the criminal proceedings have not been terminated, the sentence imposed on the former banker must, given the “psychic anomaly” from which he suffers, be suspended, even if it exceeds five years, the maximum provided by law for that purpose.
According to expertise, Ricardo Salgado is “unable to manage your daily life independently in a prison establishment”, and their incarceration can represent an “increased risk of disorganization, functional worsening, falls and inability to adhere to therapy and daily routines”.
