Operation Marquês: MP says there was no crime in the manual distribution of process

The Public Ministry (MP) closed the investigation related to the possible practice of a crime of abuse of power by the official who manually assigned the Operação Marquês process to judge Carlos Alexandre (in the photo) ).

According to the filing order, dated December 6, to which the Lusa agency had access, prosecutor Maria Isabel Santos decided to close the investigation as she considered that they had not “sufficient evidence has been collected to verify the crime of abuse of power indicted, or other”.

The filing order, of which the Superior Council of the Judiciary was informed today (CSM), states that “it was not possible to demonstrate” that the manual attribution of the Operação Marquês inquiry to judge Carlos Alexandre “has been purposeful, much less to instances of whom, if or third parties”.

In this investigation, the Lisbon Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) concluded that this attribution “was manual, was not presided over by any magistrate, nor witnessed by any other employee of the Central Criminal Investigation Court (TCIC)”.

The MP concluded, however, that “no evidence, testimonial, documentary or another, that the clerk has received instructions from any person, magistrate, employee or other, to assign such process, as well as several others [processos] to judge Carlos Alexandre”.

The MP also established that the majority of the media cases were distributed to Judge Carlos Alexandre, but considers that this “does not allow to prove or sufficiently indict that such distribution was purposeful, the reasons for it and who is responsible for responsibility for such a decision, in addition, of course, to the clerk who made it.”

THE DIA P de Lisboa also emphasizes in the filing of the case file that, when heard, the clerk “denies that such distribution was purposeful, justifying the fact that it proceeded with the manual assignment of most of the cases in the period between 01 September 2014 and 14 December April 2015 with constraints in terms of the functioning of the CITIUS system”, the digital platform that carries out the electronic draws of the processes.

The same clerk reported having communicated to the president of the district of Lisbon, on November 6, 2014, the difficulties in carrying out electronic distribution of cases, while the Citius distribution counters were not set to zero, in order to be able to proceed with an automatic distribution between the two magistrates at the time placed in the TCIC, Carlos Alexandre and João Bártolo.

The judicial official also assured the MP that she “did not know the processes to be distributed and that she never did anything at the behest of anyone”, and the MP inferred that “no evidence a, testimonial, documentary or other was produced that allows for a different conclusion”.

In the filing order, he recognizes that “it is also not possible to carry out any other diligence of evidence that allows to contribute to a better clarification of the facts under analysis”.

“This was, in fact, the conclusion reached twice by the CSM, which looked at twice times on this same issue”, in an investigation process and an investigation procedure, which were also archived “without extracting certificates for any criminal or disciplinary investigation”.

Heard in the investigation, Carlos Alexandre declared that he did not have any relationship of closeness or special trust with the clerk, nor did he have any special relationship with the prosecutors in charge of the Operação Marquês investigation, this relationship being identical to the one he had with the other magistrates of the Central Investigation Department and Criminal Action (DCIAP), that is, a relationship “strictly professional and restricted to the mere practice of the instructional functions assigned to it”.

Among other statements, he stated who “does not believe or has any indication that the clerk has received and accepted a request from any magistrate or official of the DCIAP to distribute that inquiry [Operação Marquês]”.

The defense of José Sócrates criticized the CSM today for considering that the delivery of the Operação Marquês inquiry to Judge Carlos Alexandre was only a “procedural irregularity”, despite having been made in “violation of the law”.

“The CSM leaves ‘black and white’ that there was a violation of the natural judge. However, for the CSM it is nothing more than a mere procedural irregularity”, criticized Pedro Delille, lawyer for former Prime Minister José Sócrates, revealing that it was only last week that the defense managed to have access to the conclusion of this CSM investigation.

Pedro Delille regretted that CSM considers that the electronic drawing of the processes is mandatory, but then does not draw the necessary consequences when this does not happen and admitted that during the process the irregularity that considered to be “an absolute nullity”.

However, in an open letter to the CSM released today by the Diário de Notícias, José Sócrates stated that “the report finally admits that ( …) the distribution of the Marquês case was manipulated and falsified.”

José Sócrates had been accused in this case by the Public Ministry, in 2017, of 31 crimes, namely corruption liability, money laundering, forgery of documents and tax fraud. o, in the instructional decision, in April 2021, judge Ivo Rosa decided to acquit José Sócrates of 25 of the 31 crimes, pronouncing him, to go on trial, for three crimes of money laundering and three of forgery of documents.