Justice minister Rita Alarcão Júdice has ordered an inquiry into revelations made on live television (by a SIC investigative team) that Álvaro Sobrinho, one of the key defendants in the BES/ GES corruption case finally before the courts, has not had Portuguese citizenship for … 40 years! Absent from the country – believed to be in Angola (a country which can refuse to extradite him, on the basis that he is not a Portuguese citizen) it now looks like another banker accused in a multimillion euro case of fraud and corruption will probably not get to face justice after all.
As Ms Júdice told reporters, she was not aware Sobrinho was no longer a Portuguese citizen (even though the BES/ GES case has been inching its way towards a courtroom for the last 10 years). Earlier this year, Sobrinho was charged with aggravated money laundering. It seems likely that he had already left Portugal by this point.
