The defense of former Prime Minister José Sócrates demands the immediate suspension of the court’s request to Interpol for information on dates and periods of travel in Brazil from April 9, 2021.
“José Sócrates (…) comes from now – without prejudice to other appropriate reactions to them within the legal deadlines for that purpose – to urgently request, in order to avoid further damage, derived from this new imminent violation of his rights, that that this imminent violation of their rights be given without effect immediately and that the communication or letter sent to the National Interpol Office and the national director of the Judicial Police be suspended,” reads the request sent this Wednesday to Judge Margarida Alves .
According to the process consulted by Lusa, the lawyer Pedro Delille reiterates that he has previously provided clarifications and that “the applicant was never sued or provided with a Term of Identity and Residence [TIR] in this process”, invoking, in this sense, that there was no separation of processes in relation to Operation Marquês that “allowed the expansion of the jurisdiction and the effects of constituting the defendant (…) and the IRR provided therein”.
“It is clear from the very request of the Public Ministry of June 2 to “request now for procedure 122/13.8TELSB [Operação Marquês] certificate of documents (…) (constitutions of the accused and TIR)”, explains the lawyer of the former prime minister, underlining the approval of the judge in this matter.
For Pedro Delille, this request for inclusion in the file of this case “is evidence of the full demonstration that the plaintiff is absolutely right when he states that in this case he was never constituted as a defendant and TIR was never provided”, for which he argues that “no reason assists” the MP or the order of Margarida Alves.
The representative of José Sócrates also points out an error by the judge of the Central Criminal Court of Lisbonin reference to an order of December 2, 2021, in which affirms that the magistrate did not rule on the lack of TIR provision invoked by the former prime ministerbut in which it clarifies “that it did not proceed with the separation that gave rise to this process in terms of those legal norms” provided for in the Criminal Procedure Code (CPP).
Pedro Delille considers that “not only does this Court not have the right to such an order, but it does not have to”, arguing that it is not foreseeable that José Sócrates would have to be notified as soon as possible: “It was not necessary (for any personnel or applicant must be present is plausible as early in this process or in the 122/13.8TELSB process) of any personal notification.”
And sentence with new criticisms to the deputy: “What everything indicates is precisely the continued use by this Public Ministry of the media and journalists to justify another procedural intervention that is absolutely illegitimate and improper, because it is illegal and absolutely useless, and that certainly seems to exceed the criteria of strict objectivity and legality required by its own Statute and the CPP”.
In question is a letter sent on Tuesday by the judge in this case to the National Interpol Office to provide information on the former president’s trips to Brazil. The request arose as a result of a request filed last week by the MP requesting “to make an official letter to the SEF requesting that it deign to inform this court” about the dates of absences of José Sócrates from the national territory from April 9, 2021 to the date. . .
“I request Your Excellency, if you would kindly make the necessary arrangements for the following information to be provided, on the person indicated below [José Sócrates] and with reference to the period between April 9, 2021 and the present date: the recorded data of departures from the national territory and subsequent entries, as well as two periods of permanence of the arguido in Brazilian territory”, it was not officially sent in Tuesday.
In the order dated June 6, in which he pronounces on the MP’s request, Margarida Alves admits that “the accused did not provide the aforementioned information” previously requested by the prosecution Vítor Pinto after the disclosure of the news of the former prime minister’s trips to Brazil, where he is doing a doctorate.
MP wants Socrates to explain trips to Brazil and can promote changes in coercive measures
Then, the judge explained that the SEF “integrates, through a permanent link, the National Interpol Office”, issuing the decision to issue a letter to this structure to obtain data on travel dates and periods of stay of José Sócrates in Brazilian territory and added that the national director of the Judicial Police (PJ), Luís Neves, would also be informed.
This situation arose after the publication in the Visão magazine of Socrates’ trips to Brazil by a period of more than five days. The TIR establishes that a defendant is aware of the obligation not to change residence or be absent for more than five days without denouncing this situation to the court.
José Sócrates was accused in the Operação Marquês process by the MP, in 2017, of 31 crimesnamely, passive corruption, money laundering, document fraud and tax fraud, but in the preliminary decision, of April 9, 2021, Judge Ivo Rosa decided to acquit José Sócrates of 25 of the 31 crimesPronouncing it to trial for three crimes of money laundering and three of forgery of documents.
Source: Observadora
