The strategy had already been that in the first session. And this Wednesday, the second day of the GES/BES trial, some lawyers returned to the topic: Helena Susano, president of the court, is also a victim of the bank’s collapse. He also had BES shares and, like thousands of clients represented in that room, lost much (or all) of what he had invested. Tiago Rodrigues Bastos – like Adriano Squilacce had done the day before – did not go beyond that point, but, for the second time in two days, the idea was mentioned in court. But this time, and unlike what happened in the first session, the judge did not let the comment go unnoticed. “[Veja] How much are the approximately 500 shares worth? [passe] on Avenida da Liberdade to see if you can buy a suitcase with it.”

It was not the only moment of great confrontation between the lawyers representing Ricardo Salgado and other defendants in the GES case and the group of judges. The highlight of the day was reserved for the reproduction of the statement that the former strong man of the Espírito Santo Group made to Carlos Alexandre, nine years ago. This courtroom hearing has been long awaited. But, early in the afternoon, the defense tried to prevent it: with a request at 25 hours, Adriano Squilacce tried to stop the playback. The court ended up rejecting the request.

They were just two moments – in addition to the ever-present question about Salgado’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and how this prevents the former banker from defending himself in this process – but they make the defense strategy clearer (in fact, very focused on the attack). ) and the red lines of the group of judges, with little availability to allow delays in the progress of the trial.

Salgado’s defense tried to prevent the reproduction of the 2015 testimony, the court refused

This is how the second part of the session began: early in the afternoon, Salgado’s defense presented a request to try to prevent the reproduction of the statement made more than nine years ago by Ricardo Salgado. On July 24, 2015, the former banker spent almost 12 hours being heard by the then investigating judge Carlos Alexandre, and that same day the coercive measure of house arrest was applied to him.

Nine years have passed and now the defense considers that Ricardo Salgado is not in a position to contradict those words, a statement that the court intended to remember in the courtroom this Wednesday. “The reproduction or reading of statements in a trial hearing has, among other aspects, the objective of complying with the basic principle of the adversarial procedure,” said lawyer Adriano Squilacce. And the “defendant cannot understand or discuss his own statements, which he made more than nine years ago, which, therefore, violates the right to an adversarial process.”

The session was interrupted for more than half an hour so that the group could evaluate and decide the request. In the end, the request was rejected. And with a note for lawyers: they should not think about advancing new requests during the trial sessions, when they can do so, for example, the day before, since this practice delays the planned calendar. The warning was given.

Regarding the attempt to prevent the reproduction of Salgado’s testimony, the court thus considered that the request was “manifestly unfounded”, since the former banker was informed, in 2015, during his own testimony, that his statements were “subject to the freedom evaluation of the court, and could have remained silent by law.”

[Já saiu o terceiro episódio de “A Grande Provocadora”, o novo podcast Plus do Observador que conta a história de Vera Lagoa, a mulher que afrontou Salazar, desafiou os militares de Abril e ridicularizou os que se achavam donos do país. Pode ouvir aqui, no Observador, e também na Apple Podcasts, no Spotify e no Youtube. E pode ouvir aqui o primeiro episódio e aqui o segundo.]

Furthermore, “the exercise of the adversarial process does not depend on the presence of the accused,” the judge added. “It is more than evident, in our opinion, that the accused is not right. “The accused can contradict himself through the defender who represents him.”

Open road to listen to the audio. But the first test didn’t exactly go well. The first half hour of recording did not include statements from the former banker to Judge Carlos Alexandre. There was noise and little else. Even so, it was possible to understand a phrase that the investigating judge said to Salgado and that, in fact, gave more strength to the decision to dismiss the request presented this Wednesday: “What Dr. Let’s say can be used in the future in the process.”

Since this was a recording, it would be necessary to wait (how long, no one in the room seemed to know for sure) before Salgado began to speak. At that moment, Judge Helena Susano addressed the lawyer Adriano Squilacce directly:

– How long does this take? [a parte inicial]?

– That was nine years ago, you will forgive my lack of memory.

Without knowing when Salgado’s statements would finally begin to be heard, and also due to the lack of quality and difficulties in the translation itself for the two Swiss defendants present in the room (since the transcription did not match the audio), the court decided to stop this recording. Instead, it was determined that a video of Salgado’s testimony should be played at the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action that, in fact, coincides with the document delivered to the translator and that allowed for simultaneous translation. This video was recorded on July 20, 2015, four days before the interrogation carried out by Carlos Alexandre and, according to the court, this video was also included in the audio that ended up not being played.

The video, which will continue playing next Friday afternoon, shows Ricardo Salgado at the DCIAP, accompanied by lawyers Francisco Proença de Carvalho, to his left, and Adriano Squilacce, to his right. The former banker summarized what the Espírito Santo Group was and assured that “the group never had difficulties in obtaining capital, whether from banks, companies or individuals.” “There was obvious interest in the investment.”

“The most evident proof of this attraction of international capital justifies the success of the 10 capital increases that were carried out in the BES between 2002 and 2014,” Salgado told prosecutor José Ranito, on July 20, 2015.

The former president of the BES left, at that time, a criticism of Machado da Cruz, who is also accused in this case and is also accused of criminal association. “There was never any warning from the Luxembourg authorities to consolidate the accounts,” he said. “We have never had any problems with holdings. The administrative management of holdings It was done remotely, in such a way that we signed the minutes and the accounts were deposited in Luxembourg and for 40 years no one told us that we should consolidate the accounts,” said the former banker, adding that “the Luxembourg authorities never told us that we would consolidate the accounts.” accounts, despite the fact that ESFG is within ESI.” It was in this sequence – and to reinforce the idea that he had never received warnings about the solidity of the group’s accounts – that Salgado highlighted: “Dr. Machado da Cruz said that.” “Now take a different stance, I’m not going to criticize.”

The judge’s actions that were not enough to buy a suitcase on Avenida da Liberdade

In this second session there was one more point that the defenses repeated. On the first day of the trial, Ricardo Salgado’s lawyer had already said, during his introductory statements, that the group has “a judge who is harmed by the BES”, in reference to the presiding judge Helena Susano.

In fact, Helena Susano even asked to excuse the process, since she owned BES shares (there were just over 500 shares). This request would end up being rejected by the Lisbon Court of Appeal. Even so, in the first reference she learned about her connection with Banco Espírito Santo, the president of the court did not show any reaction to the statements of lawyer Adriano Squilacce.

A day later, the scenario was not repeated. During the morning, the court heard introductory submissions that had not been completed the previous day. It was at that moment that lawyer Tiago Rodrigues Bastos spoke again on the topic, stating that Helena Susano is a “victim of the BES.”

This time the answer came and the judge left a suggestion to Alexandre Cadosch, Michel Creton and Eurofin lawyer: “Look how much the 500 shares are worth, stop by Avenida da Liberdade and see if you can buy a suitcase with them. ”.

In June 2014, the value of each share was set at 12 cents, which is equivalent to about 67 euros. Tiago Rodrigues Bastos also stated that the decision of the Lisbon Court is unknown, to which the judge responded that the decision is public.

The second day of the GES/BES trial was much less eventful than the first. Two of the three defendants who were absent from the initial session of the trial were already present: Isabel Almeida and Cláudia Faria came to court for the first time to make their respective identifications, but immediately left the courtroom. Throughout the day, only Machado da Cruz, Amílcar Pires, Michel Creton and Alexandre Cadosch were present, that is, four of the 15 defendants, not counting the three companies that are also being tried in this case.