Operação Marquês: “Ricardo Salgado didn’t commit any crimes”

  • ECO News
  • 12 October 2017

The Defense for former leader of BES highly criticized the Attorney-general's office. Ricardo Salgado and his lawyers refused to make any statements on this Thursday's press conference.

Ricardo Salgado and his lawyer, Francisco Proença de Carvalho. Paula Nunes / ECO

“Ricardo Salgado did not commit any kind of crime and we will go to extremes for his defense”. These were the words of Francisco Proença de Carvalho, Ricardo Salgado’s lawyer, in this Thursday’s a press conference, in Lisbon. There was no room for questions, and the defendant refrained from commenting.

Former BES’s chairman Ricardo Salgado is accused of having ordered the payment of bribes to former Portuguese PM José Sócrates who, between 2006 and 2009, is said to have accumulated 24 million euros in Switzerland, according to the Public Prosecutor. Salgado is also said to have ordered the payment of bribes to Zeinal Bava and Henrique Granadeiro, who were, by then, members of the administration of Portugal Telecom (PT). In the same accusation from the Public Prosecutor, José Sócrates was also accused of 31 crimes.

Info-graphics by Ana Raquel Moreira.

“Ricardo Salgado confirms he has been notified, although irregularly. My client has been cooperative in clarifying the truth. That institutional respect, which has always been a part of his life, will continue, in spite of the Public Prosecutor’s constant violations”, Francisco Proença de Carvalho explained.

Ricardo Salgado “did not commit any kind of crime and the accusation is groundless“, Francisco Proença de Carvalho stated. He also added that “the proceeding does not have proof of those crimes” and that “my client’s name was only included in the news very recently, from planted news”. Lastly, Proença de Carvalho stated that “facts, proofs and rights in a democracy should only be discusses in a court room” and that, for those reasons, neither him or his client would answer any questions.