Former Prime Minister José Sócrates requested the annulment of the distribution in the Court of Appeal of Lisbon of the appeal regarding the instructive decision of Judge Ivo Rosa in the Operação Marquês case, alleging that there was no electronic draw by a judge.
Pedro Delille, Sócrates’ lawyer, affirmed that the process was “purely and simply attributed” to the assistant judge, “without precedence of the legally required electronic and random draw”, having further argued that the legal proceedings were “omitted”.
To justify the request for annulment, Pedro Delille points to other irregularities, namely, not having been notified as Sócrates’ lawyer of the act of distribution, the “absence of the Public Prosecutor’s Office” and the “non-existence or omission of documentation” that formalizes and proves the distribution. of process
Thus, the defense understands that “the distribution of this process and all the acts carried out in it since then are irremediably null and void due to the violation of the court’s jurisdiction rules (Relação de Lisboa)”.
Socrates’ representative calls for the dismissal of the group of judges, arguing that the judge’s “absence of electronic and random draw” represents “a serious and serious reason apt to generate distrust of her impartiality” and, consequently, “the entire group ” chaired by Judge Maria José Cazador.
Pedro Delille asks for the declaration of nullity of the distribution and, if not, asks that the landing judges “please request an excuse to intervene in this process” or, “if not, please determine the immediate suspension of this process and its referral with this request to the Supreme Court of Justice to rule on an incident of refusal (judge).
This request, advanced by Visão magazine, may further delay the process of Operação Marquês, that is, the evaluation of Judge Ivo Rosa’s preliminary ruling by the Lisbon Court of Appeal, on appeal.
Of the 189 crimes in the accusation of Operation Marquês, the instructive decision determined that only 17 go to trial, and none of them for corruptionand the Public Ministry immediately stated its intention to appeal, as did José Sócrates.
Of the 28 defendantsof which 19 individuals and nine companiesIvo Rosa decided to send former Prime Minister José Sócrates, his friend and businessman Carlos Santos Silva, former Minister Armando Vara and former banker Ricardo Salgado to trial.
Sócrates was accused in the Operação Marquês process, in 2017, of 31 crimes, namely passive corruption, money laundering, document fraud and tax fraud.but in the instructive sentence, on April 9, 2021, Judge Ivo Rosa decided to acquit José Sócrates of 25 of the 31 crimes, pronouncing him to trial for three crimes of money laundering and three of forgery of documents.
Source: Observadora
