Former judge Fatima Galante, suspected of complicity with Rui Rangel in a scheme to sell court decisions at the Lisbon Court of Appeal, says she agreed to help Rangel because of the difficulties the then judge had with Word tools.
According to the prosecution, “Fatima Galante established close cooperation with Ruy Rangel and Bruna Amaral in order to formulate decisions on cases referred to Rangel, while the judge limited himself to signing decisions that had previously been written by the accused.”
In his challenge to the Lex case, Galante guarantees that what he did was “simple formatting, placing the logo of the Lisbon Court of Appeal and correcting inaccuracies or grammatical errors.” It also says, quote, “this has nothing to do with the substance of the decision, and the defendant has never judged or made proposals on criminal and procedural matters, and would not dare, since she does not know them. The defendant has always acted in a spirit of solidarity and assistance, in good faith, altruistically, never for the sake of any economic (or other) interest.”
The ministry says Rangel and Galante have handed down hundreds of decisions together over the years. They were judges in different sections of the Lisbon Court of Appeal and could not share information about cases with each other.