Portugal ex-PM to stand trial for money laundering
A Lisbon judge ruled Friday to put former Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates on trial for alleged money-laundering and forgery but said the statute of limitations had expired on more than a dozen corruption allegations.
Judge Ivo Rosa said that 1.7 million euros ($2 million),
much of it in cash, given to Sócrates by a childhood friend who was working for
a Portuguese construction company amounted to an attempt to gain influence over
the prime minister and win contracts.
Sócrates argued that the money and other assets, such as
works of art and the use of an upscale Paris apartment, were loans from his
longtime friend.
The forgery charges relate to documentation linked to the
payments.
The fact that many payments were in cash and the two men’s
use of code words in phone conversations when discussing money suggested
corrupt acts, but the statute of limitations to prosecute Sócrates on
corruption charges has run out, the judge said.
The judge dismissed other allegations of corruption against
Sócrates either because of a lack of evidence or the statute of limitations.
Both prosecutors and Sócrates can appeal Friday’s ruling.
Prosecutors alleged that Sócrates pocketed around 34 million
euros ($40 million) during and after his six years in office between 2005 and
2011.
Sócrates, 63, who was a center-left Socialist prime
minister, has denied any wrongdoing.
He was suspected of being at the center of a web of shady
corporate interests that paid for his influence to win contracts and gain
business advantages in the construction, banking and telecommunications
sectors. The charges reportedly run to some 5,000 pages.
The case has gripped Portugal since Sócrates’ arrest at
Lisbon Airport in 2014, and the judge took the rare step of allowing Friday’s
proceedings to be broadcast live.
Translating tens of thousands of pages of documents from
French and English contributed to delaying the case, but the Portuguese legal
system is notoriously slow and the subject of frequent criticism. Prosecutors
complain about a lack of resources.
In office, Sócrates won renown as a modernizer. His
governments introduced laws allowing same-sex marriages and abortion, and
championed the country’s green energy sector.
Internationally, he helped steer to completion the Lisbon
Treaty, known as the European Union’s rule book, which was signed in the
Portuguese capital under the country’s six-month EU presidency in 2007.
Sócrates was also in power when Portugal needed a 78-billion-euro
($92 billion) international bailout in 2011, amid Europe’s debt crisis.
Police investigations later cast a cloud over his
reputation. He was jailed for nine months after his arrest before being placed
under house arrest and then freed on bail.
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