News
In the Operação Marquês case, the Public Ministry (MP) decided to appeal the decision of Judge Ivo Rosa to the Lisbon Court of Appeal. Only five of the 28 defendants were pronounced, and of the 31 crimes for which José Sócrates was accused, Ivo Rosa reduced it to six, issuing a non-indictment order regarding the crime of corruption. Speaking to Advocatus, Henrique Salinas, CCA's Partner and responsible for the Criminal & Compliance area, clarifies what happens to the other crimes for which the defendants were pronounced, since the MP intends to appeal against a restraining order, i.e. whether they proceed to trial immediately or whether the appeal has a suspensive effect that prevents an immediate trial.
Although there is no simple answer since it is pending to know if this pronunciation is susceptible of appeal and, in this case, if an appeal is filed, in the part where the defendants were tried for the crimes in question, Henrique Salinas underlines that "if this happens, our law expressly establishes that the appeal against the stay order has a suspensive effect on the proceedings so that the trial can only begin after a decision has been rendered by the competent court to hear it".
"In the latter case, in my opinion, it makes sense that the trial for the crimes for which there has been a pronouncement begins after the judgment of the appeal, because only then will it be known for which crimes the defendants concerned will be tried - and if they will be together or separately", says Henrique Salinas.
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