The Lisbon Court of Appeal denied on Tuesday, February 24, the termination of the criminal case against Ricardo Salgado in Operation Marquês due to his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, a defense request that the court considered to have no “legal coverage”.
Ricardo Salgado’s defense filed an appeal against the first instance decision that refused to extinguish the files in the Operation Marquês process relating to the former banker and not to suspend the criminal proceedings against the person also accused in that case.
In a ruling dated February 24, the panel of judges from the Lisbon Court of Appeals judged the appeal “completely unfounded”, adding that, “concluding that it is not possible to suspend or terminate the criminal proceedings, as such a claim does not have legal coverage and does not violate any criminal or constitutional procedural provision, the decision must be upheld”.
The request for a new medico-legal expert was considered untimely, “without any immediate relevance to the process”.
“In the event that the appellant is convicted, his health status will certainly be taken into consideration during the sentence execution phase”, add the judges.
The courts have repeatedly rejected the defense’s claim that criminal proceedings against the former banker be terminated or suspended, although they have opened the door for the sentences not to be served in prison.
Ricardo Salgado is one of the 21 accused in Operation Marquês and is responsible for eight crimes of money laundering and three of active corruption, including one in which former Prime Minister José Sócrates (2005-2011) was allegedly corrupted.
The trial began on July 3 and the defendants have, in general, denied committing the 117 crimes accused of them globally.
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