Portugal | Sócrates prisoner no. 44 in prison for 45

Portugal’s former Prime Minister Jose Socrates

Portugal’s former prime minister, José Sócrates is going to be held in Évora prison, where he spent last night, following an initial interrogation which decided he should be held on remand, a prison source told Lusa yesterday.
The same source also said that he was prisoner number 44 at that prison, which has a capacity of 45 inmates, all from police and law enforcement agencies who would be at risk in normal prisons.
The other two remand prisoners are being held at the criminal investigation police headquarters in Lisbon.
José Sócrates is the first former prime minister in Portugal’s democratic history to end up in prison, charged with tax fraud, money laundering and corruption.
After being detained on Friday at Lisbon airport on his return from Paris, José Sócrates began to be questioned on Saturday.
The judge decided after an initial hearing there was sufficient police evidence to keep Socrates in custody on preliminary charges of wrongdoing, a court statement said. Socrates’s lawyer, Joao Araujo, said his client denies the charges and would appeal the custody decision.
Under Portuguese law, the public prosecutor will now investigate further before presenting formal charges, a process that could take more than six months. A magistrate will then decide whether to put Socrates on trial. The crimes carry a maximum sentence of 21 years.
Socrates was Portugal’s center-left Socialist prime minister from 2005 to 2011. He was detained by police after arriving at Lisbon airport late Friday and has been jailed since. Three other suspects were also arrested as part of the investigation.
Officials refused to provide details, because a judicial secrecy law forbids the disclosure of information from ongoing investigations.
Local media reported that Socrates, 57, is suspected of amassing a 20 million euro (USD25 million) fortune by taking bribes to favor companies during his time in power. The reports cited unidentified police sources.
One of the other suspects, Carlos Santos Silva, is said to be a longtime friend of Socrates. His construction company flourished during Socrates’s time in power. Investigators reportedly suspect that Socrates’s alleged illicit gains were kept in a Swiss bank account held by Santos Silva.
The suspicions swirling around Socrates have generated Portugal’s third major scandal in four months. Taken together, the allegations have shaken public faith in the country’s political and business elite.
Last summer saw the collapse of the country’s largest and oldest listed bank, Banco Espirito Santo, and the arrest of its chief executive Ricardo Espirito Santo Salgado, the patriarch of one of Portugal’s most distinguished families, on charges of fraud, forgery and money-laundering.
Earlier this month, police detained the head of the country’s immigration service and several other senior officials in a corruption investigation centered on the granting of residence permits to wealthy investors from outside the European Union.
The scandal involving Socrates has appalled the austerity-hit Portuguese.
Socrates requested a 78 billion euro international bailout for Portugal in 2011 when the country was engulfed by a debt crisis that hit countries sharing the euro currency. The bailout, which contributed to Socrates’s election defeat a few months later, brought pay and pension cuts, steep tax increases and a spike in unemployment.
Socrates made his name as a liberal modernizer. He introduced abortion on demand and gay marriage in his mostly Roman Catholic country. He also put Portugal at the forefront of Europe’s drive to adopt renewable energy. MDT/Agencies