Former Prime Minister José Sócrates today criticized society’s “double moral standard” regarding wiretapping in Operation Marques, in contrast to the “violent indignation” in the “Influencer” case involving António Costa.
In a note sent to newsrooms, Sócrates criticizes the use of wiretapping in judicial investigations, “unlawful violence by the Portuguese state” against individuals, saying that “this method is no longer the exception and has become the rule.”
The note states that for 10 years, the former head of government claimed to have been a victim of this method, “illegal violence by the Portuguese state”, which was “normalized and tolerated by everyone – politicians, journalism, the judiciary.”
“The silence about what happened in the Marquis trial, compared to the live outrage that is now being used in the Influencer trial, represents a moral double standard that I find completely unacceptable,” he wrote.
The publication of wiretaps, according to Socrates, “is used in Portugal as a means of compromising the individual reputation of political opponents,” and the “influential person” process “is added to the attempt to forget yesterday’s disgust.” , in the case of Marquis.
On Wednesday, the ministry launched an investigation into the leak of information in the Influencer process following the decryption of wiretapped calls between former Prime Minister Antonio Costa and then-Infrastructure Minister João Galamba.
In the Operation Marques case, Sócrates was accused by a deputy in 2017 of 31 crimes, namely passive corruption, money laundering, document forgery and tax fraud, but in a ruling dated April 9, 2021, Judge Ivo Rosa acquitted the former responsible for 25 of the 31 crimes, sentencing him to trial for three offenses of money laundering and three of forgery.
A January decision by the Court of Appeal determined that a total of 22 defendants would stand trial for 118 economic and financial crimes, overturning a cautionary decision that sent Jose Socrates, Carlos Santos Silva, former minister Armando Vara, Ricardo Salgado and Socrates former driver Joao Perna.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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