新聞報導
30 六月 2025在 ECO Magazine Operation Marquês - could the delay in starting the trial have a negative impact on the final decision?

More than 10 years after the start of the investigation, José Sócrates will finally stand trial, accused of 22 offences as part of ‘Operation Marquês’.

One of the most notorious cases in Portuguese justice kicks off on 3 July, with criticism of the slow pace of the judicial process and warnings from lawyers about the risks of the statute of limitations and oblivion.

But could the passage of time since the investigation began have a negative impact on the final decision? Lawyers believe so.

"This excessive delay affects, first and foremost, the good name, honour and dignity of the defendant, who is entitled to legal peace. It is important to emphasise that this delay, in a second line of importance, also harms the Public Prosecutor's Office, as the representative of the State in the pursuit of criminals," Carlos Melo Alves emphasises. For the founding partner of Melo Alves, almost all the evidence has to be recreated in the trial and, after all these years, the various actors, such as witnesses, no longer have the facts ‘so vivid’ to relate them and ‘thus discover the material truth’.

"The legitimising basis of punishment is general prevention. After more than ten years, it is difficult to achieve the re-socialisation of the convicted person, as he has now taken a new direction in life and the application of a prison sentence is highly questionable," he adds, stressing that the deterrence sought by convicting the accused loses its meaning several years after the facts were committed.