Sending requests for compensation from Banco Espírito Santo (BES) victims to civil courts could entail “unbearable costs” and delay justice, the defense of some 1,600 victims warned in an appeal filed in the BES/GES case.
The document calls into question a January ruling by Judge Helena Susano of Lisbon’s Central Criminal Court, which determined that claims for compensation should be excluded from criminal proceedings in civil courts.
Continuing those requests in the process, also known as Universo Espirito Santo, would “intolerably protract” the trial, according to the judge, a claim the victims’ defense disputes.
“Most victims would face intolerable costs if claims for civil compensation were brought to civil courts, particularly in the form of court costs and attorneys’ fees,” the appeal, which Lusa had access to, said, adding: “This will further complicate ongoing litigation , and will also entail hundreds or even thousands of new claims that, in practice, have already been filed and which can be resolved at this headquarters.”
According to the appeal, signed by lawyer Nuno Silva Vieira, the judge’s decision “is unconstitutional” because it violates a number of principles.
It also mentions invalidity and procedural irregularities, such as the alleged lack of substantiation, and states that the majority of the evidence supporting the 1,306 compensation claims is the same as in the prosecution case (PP) and therefore there will be no significant delay in pursuing this process.
“The return to conventional media is nothing more than a way of further persecuting a group of people who have already become victims (…) who have spent so many of their resources on a process that, having begun about 10 years ago, has only now become appeared before the court,” says the defense, which also argues that this decision could entail the preventive seizure of assets in the process, since they were seized to ensure the payment of loans to aggrieved parties. While acknowledging that the process is “extensive and complex”, the defense also understands that withdrawing from the process would harm her clients as they would have to wait for a final decision in the criminal justice system to file claims for compensation in the civil courts, under the regret that conflicting decisions could arise.
“This appeal must be found to be well-founded and, therefore, the appealed decision must be set aside and replaced by another that preserves the judicial assessment of civil claims for compensation in ongoing criminal proceedings,” he concludes.
The appeal was filed on Friday at the Lisbon Central Criminal Court and is still awaiting transfer to the Lisbon Court of Appeal for consideration.
This situation could jeopardize the start of the trial, scheduled for June 18, since the defense considers it “essential” that the appeal has a suspensive effect, that is, that no further decisions are made without first clarifying this issue.
The criminal trial of Universo Espírito Santo will begin almost ten years after the collapse of the Espirito Santo Group (GES), in August 2014, and its main accused is the former president of BES Ricardo Salgado, accused of 65 crimes, including criminal associations, active corruption, document forgery, skilled fraud and money laundering.
Considered one of the largest cases in the history of Portuguese justice, the case brings together 242 investigations into the main trial, which were consolidated, and complaints from more than 300 people, natural and legal, living in Portugal and abroad.
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