Hacker Rui Pinto and former prime minister Sócrates tried by the same judge

  • ECO News
  • 11 June 2021

Judge Margarida Alves will be the president of the panel that will judge José Sócrates in the separate case of Operation Marquês.

Judge Margarida Alves will be the president of the panel of magistrates, who will judge José Sócrates and Carlos Santos Silva. The magistrate is the same who presides over the trial of hacker Rui Pinto.

On Friday, Judge Ivo Rosa signed an order closing the case and sent it to the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, to continue the trial of Sócrates and Santos Silva. The defendants will be tried for six counts of money laundering and forgery of documents.

Ivo Rosa announced on the same day that the instructional phase was closed, as well as “all issues related to the instructional decision have been decided” and he was officially “free” of the Operation Marquês case.

In the decision, made public on April 9, the judge ruled that José Sócrates, accused of 31 crimes, should only go on trial for three counts of money laundering and another three of forgery of documents, the same crimes for which his friend and businessman Carlos Santos Silva is indicted.