Former Portuguese Prime Minister Socrates is on trial
A Lisbon judge on Friday decided to prosecute former Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates for alleged money laundering and counterfeiting, but said the statute of limitations had expired on more than a dozen corruption charges.
Judge Ivo Rosa said that 1.7 million euros ($ 2 million), much of it in cash, given to Socrates by a childhood friend who worked for a Portuguese construction company amounted to an attempt to gain influence over the prime minister and win contracts.
Socrates claimed that the money and other assets, such as works of art and the use of an exclusive apartment in Paris, were loans from his longtime friend.
The counterfeiting fees refer to documentation linked to the payments.
The fact that many payments were in cash and the two men’s use of passwords in telephone conversations when discussing money suggested corrupt acts, but the limitation period for prosecuting Socrates on corruption charges has ceased, the judge said.
The judge dismissed other allegations of corruption against Socrates either because of a lack of evidence or a statute of limitations.
Both prosecutors and Socrates can appeal Friday’s decision.
Prosecutors allege that Socrates received € 34 million ($ 40 million) during and after his six years in office between 2005 and 2011.
Socrates, 63, who was a Socialist center-left prime minister, has denied any wrongdoing.
He was suspected of being at the center of a web of shady corporate interests that paid for his influence to win contracts and gain business benefits in the construction, banking and telecommunications sectors. The fees reportedly amount to approximately 5,000 pages.
The case has gripped Portugal since Socrates was arrested at Lisbon airport in 2014, and the judge took the rare step of having Friday’s proceedings broadcast live.
Translation of tens of thousands of pages of documents from French and English helped to delay the case, but the Portuguese legal system is notoriously slow and subject to frequent criticism. Prosecutors complain about lack of resources.
In the office, Socrates became known as the modernizer. His governments introduced laws allowing same-sex marriage and abortion and advocated for the country’s green energy sector.
Internationally, he helped complete the Lisbon Treaty, known as the European Union’s rulebook, which was signed in the Portuguese capital during the country’s six-month EU presidency in 2007.
Socrates was also in power when Portugal needed an international rescue operation of 78 billion euros (2011), in the midst of Europe’s debt crisis.
Police investigations later threw a cloud over his reputation. He was detained for nine months after his arrest before being placed under house arrest and then released on bail.
(AP)
