The instructive debate on the BES/GES process is scheduled to begin this Tuesday at Monsanto’s court in Lisbon, after failure to notify some defendants forced a postponement in April.
In the brief session held on the 11th, the investigating judge Pedro Santos Correia ended up postponing the procedure due to the lack of notification of the accused Etienne Cadosch and Michel Creton, as well as the Eurofin company.
The lawyer for these accused, Tiago Rodrigues Bastos, then stressed that the law requires the presence of the accused in the preliminary debate and provides that he can only not attend if he expressly resigns after being notified to appear.
The judge has also reserved the court for Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, in case it were necessary to prolong the instructive debate.
Witnesses such as former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, former Bank of Portugal Governor Carlos Costa or former President of Banco Espírito Santo Investimento (BESI) José Maria Ricciardi were examined.
Realization of the instructive debate takes place one year after the beginning of the investigation phase in the Central Criminal Investigation Courton April 26, 2022, then still in the hands of Judge Ivo Rosa (who was replaced by Pedro Santos Correia in September, by decision of the Superior Council of the Judiciary), and almost three years after the Public Ministry was known.
On July 14, 2020, the investigation by the Central Directorate of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) resulted in the accusation of 25 defendants (18 people and seven companies), including the former president of Grupo Espírito Santo (GES), Ricardo salted .
The former banker was charged with 65 crimes, including criminal association, active corruption, document falsification, qualified fraud, money laundering, infidelity and market manipulation.
Considered one of the largest cases in the history of Portuguese justice, this case adds 242 investigations to the main process, which were accumulated, and complaints from more than 300 natural and legal persons, residents in Portugal and abroad.
According to the deputy, whose indictment amounted to nearly four thousand pages, the collapse of Grupo Espírito Santo (GES), in 2014, will have caused losses of more than 11,800 million euros.
Source: Observadora
