Court Agenda 53 Operation Marquis Judgment Sessions by the end of the year
The Central Criminal Court of Lisbon scheduled until the end of this year 53 sessions of the judgment of the Operation Marquis process. In this process, former Prime Minister José Sócrates will be responsible for 22 crimes, including corruption.
The first session of the trial is scheduled for July 3 at 9:30 am. The information had already been revealed by the defenses of the defendants on March 17.
The trial then continues every Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, except during summer judicial holidays, from July 16 to August 31. In July there will be sessions on the 8th, 9th, 10th and 15th and in September from the 2nd. The cadence of three dates per week is held until December 18, a Thursday.
The following week, Christmas Judicial Holidays will begin until January 3 of next year. For no longer there are scheduled sessions for 2026.
In the order, Judge Susana Seca refers for later the notification of witnesses listed for the trial, in order to avoid “useless travel” to the Lisbon campus. The calendar, now known and advanced by the observer, was agreed between the court and most defenders of the defendants on March 17 at a closed door meeting.
José Sócrates’s lawyer did not attend this meeting and the absence was then justified by the former prime minister in a statement, with the fact that the defense considered that « the Marquis process has not yet exceeded the instructional phase. »
In addition to José Sócrates, there are 21 other defendants in the defendants, who are responsible for a total of 118 economic and financial crimes, including corruption, laundering of capital and tax fraud.
Acts under suspicion are mainly related to three dossiers: the Lena Group, which includes the TGV project; the former telecommunications company Portugal Telecom (PT); and Vale do Lobo’s resort in the Algarve, to which Caixa Geral de Depósitos granted a credit considered ruinous.
