José Sócrates filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Attorney General’s Office for invasion of privacy. This action follows the former prime minister’s encounter with a camera from Correio da Manhã upon his arrival at Lisbon Airport from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
In a letter, Sócrates stated that the media outlet was “waiting for him” to “ask questions” about his private life, showing “exact knowledge” of his previous travels and destinations.
“I have always been careful to comply with legal obligations resulting from the term of identity and residence precisely to avoid informing the court of my travels, knowing that everything ends up in the newspapers. Even so, despite my precautions, Correio da Manhã’s television knew exactly the trips I had made and when”, José Sócrates noted.
The main defendant in Operation Marquês expressed a “strong suspicion that this station receives information from criminal authorities with the evident aim of invading the privacy of citizens who are particularly targeted by this institution”—as in his case.
He emphasized: “None of this is about journalism, but about venality: audiences bring financial gain to the television station”.
For all these reasons, “and despite knowing the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s indifference to personality rights and, more than that, despite being absolutely convinced that it is the Public Prosecutor’s Office itself that provides this information (with its abusive surveillances to know if I fulfill the TIR obligations) – I wish to file a complaint against unknown parties for the crime of invasion of privacy, naming the prosecutors linked to the Marquês Process as main suspects”.
The former prime minister was confronted by CMTV at around 7:30 am on Tuesday upon arrival at Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon from Abu Dhabi.
When questioned by the journalist, Sócrates asked not to be disturbed, eventually stopping speaking due to the outlet’s persistence. At one point, he ironically remarked: “What would we do without Correio da Manhã, early in the morning?”
José Sócrates is facing 22 charges in the context of Operation Marquês: three of corruption, 13 of money laundering, and six of qualified tax fraud.
The case involves 21 defendants, who generally deny the 117 economic-financial crimes attributed to them.
The trial has been ongoing since July 3 at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon and was interrupted until at least December 4 for José Sócrates to appoint a new lawyer.
It is noted that the active and passive corruption charges risk expiring during the first half of 2026. More than a hundred witnesses are yet to be heard in the case.
The corruption charges against former Prime Minister José Sócrates and three other defendants related to the financing by Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) to Vale do Lobo may expire in the first half of 2026, the court informed today.
