Staying behind bars

by Guest 23.04.15 18:31

http://theportugalnews.com/news/court-once-more-rules-ex-pm-to-remain-behind-bars/34546

by TheTruthWillOut 23.04.15 18:57

It gives me hope that the Portuguese justice system has the strength of conviction to keep a ex PM on remand. Can anyone here imagine that being the case in this country?

And does it make sense that they would do the above yet aid and abet SY in a whitewash?

by **Tony Bennett** 23.04.15 21:07

TheTruthWillOut wrote:It gives me hope that the Portuguese justice system has the strength of conviction to keep a ex PM on remand. Can anyone here imagine that being the case in this country?

Lord Archer and Jonathan Aitken, who both held Ministerial posts, were both banged up for years for perverting the course of justice. In a relatively corrupt country like Portugal, it is just as possible that Socrates is actually banged up simply because the other side won the last General Election there

And does it make sense that they would do the above yet aid and abet SY in a whitewash?

They have delayed justice for Dr Goncalo Amaral in his libel trial for a ridiculous 5 years, 10 months and counting.

They handed Dr Goncalo Amaral an 18-month suspended jail term for...what? exactly? - in a criminal case against him and his colleagues brought by a serial liar, Leonor Cipriano, murderess-of-her-own-daughter who tried to pass off her crime as an abduction

They covered up the top-level paedophile ring scandal at the Casa Pia childrens' homes for decades - and still let some of the worst perpetrators go free

They buckled to the tune of the British government and removed one of their most dedicated detectives, working on the Madeleine McCann case, Dr Amaral, on the strength (probably) of a telecon between Gordon Brown and Jose Socrates.

PLEASE >>> No more lectures about the Portuguese judicial system - it's a lot lot worse than ours

by Guest 12.06.15 15:59

http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/former-pm-remains-behind-bars-amid-controversy/35005

by **PeterMac** 19.07.15 15:14

http://portugalresident.com/taxman-slaps-“legal-claim”-on-sócrates’-€270000-lisbon-apartment

Taxman slaps “legal claim” on Sócrates’ €270,000 Lisbon apartment

Portugal’s tax authority has put a holding order on Sócrates’ prime-location Lisbon apartment due to non-payment of a €5,860 debt.
The exact figure of the sum in question is given today by tabloid Correio da Manhã as €5,863.48 - but the paper says the document relating to it at Lisbon’s land registry office (Conservatória de Registo Predial) does not say to what it relates.
CM claims it has repeatedly tried to contact Sócrates’ lawyers, to no avail - and it explains that in cases where debts are not paid, people’s properties are then put up for sale online by the tax department (via venda electrónica).
This may be a side-story to the ongoing Operation Marquês - purportedly trying to unravel millions of euros in kickbacks and favours allegedly orchestrated by the former Socialist prime minister - but it puts the vulnerability of debtors when they owe money to the taxman into sharp perspective.

Only last year a single unemployed mother who owed two years of road fund tax for her car found her only home put up for sale to cover the comparatively paltry debt.
In this woman’s case, a wave of public support soon raised enough money to pay the debt for her.
This may not happen with Sócrates, of course, who managed to mortgage the apartment from behind bars in Évora jail in January to secure a €250,000 personal loan.
The loan was extended to the former PM by Caixa Geral de Depósitos - the same bank that has come under scrutiny from Marquês investigators over “ruinous” loans it made during Sócrates’ years in power.

natasha.donn@algarveresident.com

Gordon Sell-all-the-Gold Brown to the rescue ?

by Guest 19.07.15 16:02

http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/jailed-ex-pm-says-he-is-a-political-prisoner/35237

by **sharonl** 29.01.16 7:06

Sócrates defence team silent after judges rule “there is evidence of corruption”

Jose Socrates, former Portuguese PM, REMANDED IN CUSTODY 28 Nov 2014 - Page 2 21cc25167979542b473f02c3ebe512d1-783x450

Despite the gagging order in place since late last year on the nation’s largest selling tabloid, other papers are keeping up with the Sócrates’ corruption investigation as much as they can - with Diário de Notícias reporting today that a bid by the former prime minister’s defence team to wipe their client’s slate clean has been unsuccessful.

Lisbon court of appeal judges have ruled that there is every reason to continue with the investigation into Sócrates’ alleged corruption as “indications” this far are “sufficient” to establish a case for the crime of corruption.
According to DN, “in relation to the facts that are under suspicion” - namely those concerning “the Lena construction group, Vale do Lobo, money deliveries, the purchase of properties, payments for holiday and the purchase of the book A Confiança no Mundo” … there appears to be a “modus operandi” that justifies investigation.

Sócrates’ lawyers had been insisting on a lack of indications of corruption - thus the ruling will have come as a major blow.
Contacted for a comment as a result of the appeal court ruling, defence lawyers are described as “not having answered”.

- See more at: http://portugalresident.com/s%C3%B3crates-defence-team-silent-after-judges-rule-%E2%80%9Cthere-is-evidence-of-corruption%E2%80%9D#sthash.JoYHL7mM.dpuf

by sallypelt 29.01.16 8:03

This is a Google translate from Corrieo da Manha:

29.01.2016 01:00

Baroque feature reveals gloves Socrates

Rosario Teixeira speaks in commissions on Carlos Silva accounts.

By Eduardo Damaso, Tania Laranjo

Rosario Teixeira says there were gloves Lena Group in various state business. They are: the deal with the houses of Venezuela, the construction of the new airport and the TGV, public-private partnerships and Parque Escolar.

The public prosecutor has no doubts. The funds transferred, Switzerland, the accused's account Joaquim Baroque to the defendant's account Carlos Santos Silva, had their real justification in paying undue advantages - ensures the magistrate who is responsible for investigating the Marquis process. And it lists the successive transfers, which ended up making enrich Carlos Santos Silva, garnering more than 21 million in Swiss bank.

In the resource Joaquim Baroque, the attorney explains that the final recipient of the gloves was José Sócrates and that complex financial schemes for concealment of money were combined with the former prime minister.

Joaquim Baroque claims that cooperated with the investigation and dispute the payment of collateral: their repentance is not taken into account, since the vice of Lena Group rejects orchestrating with Carlos Santos Silva a glove payment scheme.

http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/nacional/portugal/detalhe/luvas_do_grupo_lena_em_negocios_da_venezuela.html

by **sharonl** 31.03.16 20:57

New evidence delays corruption charges against Sócrates

http://portugalresident.com/new-evidence-delays-corruption-charges-against-s%C3%B3crates

New evidence throwing up additional “questions for the authorities in UK, Switzerland and Angola” mean that charges in the long-running investigation into the alleged corruption of former prime minister José Sócrates have yet again been delayed.

Amadeu Guerra, the director of DCIAP - the central department of penal action and investigation - has granted public prosecutor Rosário Teixeira a further five-and-a-half month extension on the limits imposed on Operation Marquês.

National tabloid Correio da Manhã - the paper that has run more exposés on the case than any other - stresses that the new date, September 15, is still open-ended. It could be that this too will be extended. In fact, the paper seems to think Marquês could only reach the point where it is ready to press charges “by the end of the year”.

Moves by Sócrates’ lawyers to get the whole case thrown out on the basis that time-limits have all expired seem to have led nowhere. CM says the country’s “higher courts” have all agreed that, in this case at least, legal time limits are “merely approximate”.

The only instance where they are seen to have been valid involved Sócrates’ months of imprisonment, both in Évora jail and under house arrest in Lisbon. Thus, the former leader of the PS Socialist party remains “free” though unable to travel or contact fellow defendants as Marquês gets cracking with its new evidence.

CM claims additional names could swell the current list of 11 defendants, while new witnesses have also to be interviewed. “It all seems ridiculous”, outspoken defence lawyer João Araújo - the same man who told one of CM’s journalist she “smelt bad and should take another bath” - has retorted, saying the prosecution are coming up with “time limit over time limit”.

But as CM explains, there are still many ‘gaps’ in the prosecution’s roadmap. Portuguese-Angolan businessman Hélder Bataglia, the man dubbed “the corruptor of Vale do Lobo for allegedly paying €12 million to Sócrates to win vital planning permission” has still not been made an official defendant (largely because he is reported to want to cut a deal for exemption from prosecution), and the Public Ministry is also waiting on bank details from the UK and Switzerland, says the paper.

The bank details particularly are thought to be “fundamental” as CM claims they will show the complex web of roughly 23 million euros that investigators say were obtained through corruption. Thus, for now, the wait continues, with Sócrates only cited for the crimes of active and passive corruption, money-laundering and qualified fiscal fraud, but charged with nothing. natasha.donn@algarveresident.com