Former Socialist prime minister José Sócrates – a man held in jail for months and charged with multiple crimes, involving corruption and malfeasance, that have all started dwindling into the ether, has now ‘found himself’ without a defence lawyer … for the second time.
At this point in a case that has been limping through the judicial system for well over 10 years, every day counts: the charges against Mr Sócrates are at risk of ‘running into extinction’.
It is a scenario that gels with all the initial ‘feelings’ on this ‘prosecution of the century’: “It’ll never happen”, people said.
Yesterday, Mr Sócrates’ ‘new’ defence council resigned – asking the trial court to give his client 20 days to appoint a third defence lawyer.
Lawyer José Preto justified the decision with the need to “restore the defendant’s freedom by re-establishing his rights of defence”, as he has been represented by a court-appointed lawyer since January 6.
José Preto was hired by the former head of government (during the years 2005-2011) at the end of November 2025 – following the resignation of lawyer Pedro Delille, who had been representing José Sócrates since his arrest in Operation Marquês in November 2014.
At the time, the former head of government was represented by another court-appointed lawyer, José Manuel Ramos, in several sessions of the trial, until it was suspended for almost two months, with a restart scheduled for January 6, 2026 – a date on which José Preto did not appear because he was in hospital with pneumonia.
The court then randomly appointed lawyer Ana Velho, who, after five days to review the case, attended this morning’s session, during which two witnesses ‘with no knowledge of the acts under suspicion’ were heard.
At lunchtime, Ana Velho was still unaware of José Preto’s resignation and assured journalists that she had not yet even spoken to Mr Sócrates.
In the application sent to the court today, José Preto informs – in addition to resigning from his mandate and requesting that the former prime minister be notified to appoint a new representative – that the defendant, “as legally provided, withdraws the effectiveness of the acts of the appointed public defender.”
Exit Ana Velho, in other words.
This ‘not-so-merry’ ring-a-roses sees José Sócrates, 68, still facing 22 crimes, including three counts of corruption, for allegedly receiving money for ‘benefiting’ the Lena group, the Espírito Santo Group (GES), and the Algarve resort of Vale do Lobo.
In total, there are 21 defendants in the case, who have generally denied committing the 117 economic and financial crimes with which they are charged.
The offences are alleged to have been committed between 2005 and 2014, and, in the first half of this year, the oldest corruption offences related to Vale do Lobo runs the risk of becoming time-barred.
José Sócrates and the other defendants were excused by the Lisbon Central Criminal Court from attending the trial – and have all been absent from the last few sessions.
There was a brief moment some years back when a judge, whose ruling was later trashed essentially absolved Mr Sócrates of nearly all wrong-doing. Was he gracious and ‘delighted’. No, he wasn’t: he thundered: “I want compensation for everything!” This is basically the situation today. Mr Sócrates is playing a system he feels has profoundly mistreated him. We can only wait and see who wins.
Source: Lusa
