The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) today questioned the alleged visit of former Prime Minister José Sócrates to the United Arab Emirates, suggesting that if the trip did occur, it could be part of an escape plan and that restrictive measures might be altered.
“It’s completely false that I took trips abroad exceeding the five-day limit, after which I must inform the court of my whereabouts. It’s false, period,” Sócrates stated in a clarification sent following the position expressed by the MP.
In the note, the former leader sarcastically remarked that “twelve years later” this is “the third escape risk” he is suspected of in the scope of Operation Marquês, currently suspended until early January due to the resignation of his defense lawyer, Pedro Delille.
“There was an escape risk at Lisbon airport in 2014 when I was entering the country, not leaving; there was an escape risk due to pursuing a doctorate in Brazil; now they claim there’s an escape risk for having traveled twice to Abu Dhabi (in separate, short trips, neither exceeding five days),” he declared.
He directly criticized the MP: “The maneuver, well understood, is to invert the terms: I reported the prosecutors for allegedly leaking information to journalists about my private life; they respond by insinuating I’ve taken illegal trips, suggesting an escape risk.”
According to the former prime minister, “the Public Prosecutor’s suspicions aren’t laughable; they’re malicious.”
The issues raised today by the MP, detailed in a request accessed, follow an interview José Sócrates gave to CNN last week, in which he indicated he spent two weeks in the United Arab Emirates.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office does not dismiss the possibility that the mentioned trip was not reported to the court deliberately, potentially aligning with a plan to evade national justice.
José Sócrates, currently on trial for 22 crimes in the Operation Marquês case, is subject to terms requiring the disclosure of a new residence or location if absent from the country for more than five days, the least restrictive coercive measure.
The MP now seeks an explanation from Sócrates regarding his international travels and the lack of communication about them. It has requested flight records from the Border Control Coordination Unit, Passenger Information Office, and ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal for Sócrates.
If non-communicated travels are confirmed, the Public Prosecutor’s Office may revise the coercive measures.
José Sócrates, aged 68, is charged with 22 crimes, including three of corruption, allegedly accepting monetary gains to benefit in distinct dossiers the Lena group, Espírito Santo Group (GES), and the Vale do Lobo resort.
The case involves 21 defendants, most of whom deny the 117 economic and financial crimes charged against them.
The trial has been ongoing since July 3 at the Lisbon Central Criminal Court, which clarified on November 11 that corruption charges related to Vale do Lobo could expire in the first half of 2026.
