by CHRIS GRAEME
chris.graeme@theresidentgroup.com
Scottish businessman Charles Smith and his former business partner Manuel Pedro have been charged with attempted extortion and face court in Portugal over the Freeport Case.
The official notification that the two associates are now defendants rather than legal suspects or ‘arguidos’ was made public by the Portuguese Public Ministry.
Prime Minister José Sócrates, who for so long has been dogged by what he called “calumnious insinuations and allegations”, broadcast to the nation his “enormous satisfaction” that the Public Ministry had recognised that there had been “no irregularities in granting planning permission for Freeport”.
“The truth always comes to the fore,” he said, adding that the conclusion “didn’t come as any surprise to me, because, as I’ve always maintained, this planning application always met all the rules and demands laid down in the law”.
The Public Ministry’s Attorney-General’s Office, Procuradoria-Geral da República, issued a statement last week via the Portuguese Central Department of Criminal Investigation (DCIAP) that the lengthy investigation into alleged bribery, corruption and money laundering has officially ended.
Apart from the two Smith & Pedro consultants, other legal suspects, now cleared, according to Diário de Notícias newspaper, had included an architect, Capinha Lopes, the former president of the Portuguese Institute of Nature Conservation (Instituto de Conservação da Natureza), Carlos Guerra, its former vice-president, José Manuel Marques, João Cabral, a former Smith & Pedro employee and the former president of Alcochete Câmara, José Dias Inocêncio.
It was little over a month ago when the Director of the DCIAP, Portugal’s version of the British CID, Maria Cândida Almeida, announced that the investigation involving the formerly British-owned Freeport retail outlet at Alcochete would end before the legal summer break in August.
The Portuguese Public Ministry also lifted judicial secrecy into the investigation, making thousands of pages of documents, statements and evidence open to journalists and interested legal parties.
The Freeport Case arose over suspicions of corruption, receiving backhanders and traffic of influence to do with the planning permission in March 2002 of what was then Europe’s largest designer retail outlet on land designated part of the River Tagus Estuary Special Protection Zone.
The estuary, the widest and largest natural wetland estuary in Europe, was awarded protected status by both the European Union and the Portuguese government because of the many species of migratory birds that spend the winter on the river. Ironically the Government now plans to build a massive new international airport right on its doorstep.
Despite allegations and supposed evidence from CD recordings that the Prime Minister may have been involved in the case, José Sócrates was cleared of any crimes of either active or passive corruption or trafficking of influence during the investigation which began in February 2005 and lasted five years.
“The Portuguese can understand my satisfaction to see recognised, finally, in black and white, and furthermore by an independent body, what I and Environment Ministry representatives have said all along,” said José Sócrates.
“It must be obvious to all Portuguese of good faith the enormity of the slanders, falsehoods and injustices that were constantly levelled against me throughout these last six years, very often with one single objective in mind: to attack me politically and personally.
“After all that I have been through, after all that was said about me, it is extraordinary that there are still those who are intent on seeing my statements on this case as an exercise in phoney victimisation.
“Actually, whenever I spoke about this subject it was to exercise my legitimate right to defend myself against slander – and I did so on only a few occasions, but always in a firm and clear manner,” he added, saying that it was the last time he would refer to the matter.
The 700-page DCIAP and Judicial Police (PJ) summary report into the investigation, which cost millions in taxpayers’ money, reveals scores of interviews and witness statements with Portuguese and foreigners alike.
On Monday, the Portuguese press revealed that of the 165 bank accounts studied by the police, not one indicated that José Sócrates or any members of the Ministry of the Environment had been in receipt of large sums of unaccountable cash.
