Operation Marquês: Court orders case to ‘proceed immediately to trial’

Ten years after his arrest at Lisbon airport, the Operation Marquês case, with all its challenges and appeals, has finally come to an end – meaning former prime minister José Sócrates will at last face trial for corruption. Or will he? Reports today vacillate between saying the Court of Appeal has ordered the case to “proceed immediately”, and conceding that Mr Sócrates could just have one further appeal to the Supreme Court ‘up his sleeve’… Pundits have always predicted that Mr Sócrates ‘will never go on trial’: after 10 years, the nation is definitely not holding its breath.