Following the resignation of his lawyer, Pedro Delille, the court ordered the appointment of a court-appointed lawyer to ensure the defense of the former government official.
Now, in a request obtained by Lusa, José Sócrates wrote to the court asking to “end the lamentable and degrading spectacle”.
The spectacle of seeing someone on television claiming to be my lawyer, without ever being given any mandate by me, he wrote.
“It is a situation that greatly displeases me and which I insist must end immediately – if I have twenty days to choose a new lawyer, please spare me the painful staging of seeing someone speak on my behalf against my will, giving public expression to the continued caricature of abuses in which this process has become fertile”, the former Prime Minister added.
José Sócrates further stated in the document that his right to defense is at stake and that this right cannot be sacrificed “with urgency claims, nor with trial deadlines suggested by officials of the Superior Council of the Judiciary” (referring to a media interview).
The court knows, Sócrates added in the document, that this right to defense cannot be ensured by someone without any knowledge of the process and who has not been given time to consult it, nor conditions to follow the presentation of documents during hearings.
The important thing, summarized the former Prime Minister: “I am the one who chooses my lawyer”.
In the document, José Sócrates began by recalling that he has 20 days to choose a lawyer and that he will do so.
On Wednesday, José Sócrates had already stated that after the resignation of his defender, Pedro Delille, he was not notified to choose another lawyer, nor was he contacted by anyone about this matter.
“After the resignation, I did not choose another lawyer. I was not notified to choose a lawyer. I was not, incidentally, contacted by anyone about this matter, nor did I mandate another lawyer. With all firmness: it is not the judge who chooses my future lawyer, nor does the judicial state impose a defender on me”, he stated then.
The former Prime Minister and main defendant in the Operation Marquês case, José Sócrates, clarified today that after the resignation of his defender, Pedro Delille, he was not notified to choose another lawyer, nor was he contacted by anyone about this matter.
On Tuesday, José Sócrates’s lawyer, Pedro Delille, resigned from the mandate of defending the former Prime Minister in the Operation Marquês trial, leading the court to order the appointment of a court-appointed lawyer to ensure the former government official’s defense.
José Sócrates, 68, is indicted (charged after instruction) with 22 crimes, including three of corruption, for allegedly receiving money to favor different dossiers for groups like Lena, Espírito Santo Group (GES), and Vale do Lobo resort in Algarve.
In total, the case involves 21 defendants, who have generally denied the commission of the 117 economic-financial crimes attributed to them.
The trial has been ongoing since July 3 and has sessions scheduled at least until December 18, 2025.
