The proceedings of Operation Marquês, with José Sócrates as the main defendant, have been paused due to judicial holidays. Despite this break, the former Prime Minister continues to criticize the actions of the judiciary.
In an interview with CNN Portugal on Sunday, José Sócrates reiterated previous statements made, for instance, outside the court at the Justice Campus in Lisbon, where multiple sessions of the high-profile trial have taken place.
The former socialist leader described the conduct of Portuguese justice in Operation Marquês as an “abuse,” “arbitrariness,” “injustice,” and “violence.” He maintains that he was “considered innocent”—despite not being cleared of all charges—and claims he faced an “accusation made in betrayal and surprise.”
For José Sócrates, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) found a straightforward solution to bring him to trial again. “There was a writing lapse, change the crime and ‘if it wasn’t you, it was your father’,” he stated.
“In 2017, I’m accused of one thing, seven years later, another. You won the first, but here’s a surprise accusation,” he remarked, asserting that “in 2024, three judges told him: ‘No sir, now we changed the accusation because there was a writing lapse.'”
“But what writing lapse? Did seven prosecutors all make a mistake at the same time?”, he questioned, echoing sentiments expressed throughout the trials.
On Tuesday, former Prime Minister José Sócrates filed a complaint against the Portuguese state with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) concerning Operation Marquês, in which he is a defendant, and whose trial is set to begin on July 3.
Andrea Pinto with Lusa | 12:11 – 01/07/2025
The defendant believes there was no writing lapse and called it a “judicial coup” devised to compel him into a second trial. The objective, according to him, is because “they were not satisfied with the first one, as I was found innocent of all charges in the preparatory hearing court. Now, they want to bring me to trial,” he affirmed, emphasizing, “we’ve been at this for 10 years.”
“Do they think they have the right to do what they do? I believe that’s the real question,” he highlighted, while not answering some of the CNN Portugal journalist’s questions.
It is noted that José Sócrates was arrested at Lisbon Airport and charged by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2017 with 31 crimes, including passive corruption, money laundering, document forgery, and tax fraud. However, in the preparatory hearing on April 9, 2021, Judge Ivo Rosa acquitted the former leader of 25 of the 31 crimes, moving him to trial only for three money laundering and three document forgery crimes.
In January 2024, an appellate decision nearly restored the MP’s full indictment.
