The decision on the appeal of the Office of the Public Prosecutor (OP) against the instructing decision of Judge Ivo Rosa, which did not confirm most of the charges in Operation Marques, is taken this Thursday by the Lisbon Court of Appeal.
The decision is scheduled for 14:30, according to the schedule of the Lisbon Court of Appeal. In December, the Supreme Council of the Judiciary (SCJ) extended the exclusive powers of the judges of the Lisbon Court of Appeal who will decide the State Ministry’s appeal regarding the non-indictment of former Prime Minister José Socrates and other defendants in Operation Marques.
The decision is made by judges Raquel Lima, Michaela Rodriguez and Madalena Caldeira. The appeal concerns the archiving in the investigative order of 172 of the 189 crimes that were included in the deputy’s original indictment, leaving only 17 crimes, and the most serious charge – corruption – was decided by Judge Ivo Roza. .
The list of defendants – 19 individuals and nine companies – was narrowed down to José Socrates, businessman Carlos Santos Silva, former minister Armando Vara, former banker Ricardo Salgado and Socrates’ former driver João Perna. The latter, however, had already been arrested. tried and convicted.
Among the accused acquitted under Ivo Rosa’s instructing decision are, for example, former PT directors Zeinal Bawa and Enrique Granadeiro, former Lena Group administrator Joaquim Barroca, former ESCOM president Helder Batalha or former CTT non-executive director Rui Horta y Costa.
José Socrates was accused by a deputy in 2017 in the “Operation Marques” case of 31 crimes, namely passive corruption, money laundering, forgery and tax fraud, but in his ruling of April 9, 2021, Judge Ivo Rosa ruled that José should be cleared Socrates