Lawyer quits, trial stalled; Socrates is “wiping the floor with Justice”

Now it was Marco António Amaro’s turn to apologize for Operation Marquês. The restart would be next week – it won’t happen again.

Since the Operation Marquis process began, Joseph Socrates He has had 8 lawyers in around 12 years – and will soon have one more.

The first was João Araújo, who died in the meantime. Afterwards, Pedro Delille, José Preto and Sara Leitão Moreira resigned; and also the legal lawyers José Ramos, Inês Louro and Ana Velho.

At the end of February, the former prime minister’s eighth lawyer emerged, when the Bar Association appointed Marco Antônio Amaro as an unofficial lawyer.

Marco would have 10 days to consult the entire process and study the cases. But in the meantime he has given up.

Marco António Amaro delivered a request for excuse to the Lisbon regional council of the Bar Association, advances .

The withdrawal occurred after the lawyer removed the files from the court office last week.

The order was delivered this Monday and, therefore, José Sócrates is left without a lawyer again.

He is left without a lawyer and no date for the resumption of the trial – which was scheduled for a week from now, on March 17th, but now the trial is suspended again.

Now the Bar Association will have to find a new representative for Sócrates (or the former prime minister will present a lawyer he chose).

“Clean the floor”

Operation Marquis, with these interruptions and constant “soap operas”, is already reaching an extreme, we heard on the radio.

Helena Garrido warns that whoever has political responsibilities “should look at this, at this erosion of belief” in Justice and a “internal erosion of democracy“.“Every day, live and live, it is an obscene, pornographic spectacle. It’s a very serious matter. There is a terrible blindness here”, he warned.

José Sócrates “basically took Justice and is wiping the floor with it”, added another commentator, Paulo Ferreira.