The former prime minister and main defendant in the case Operation MarquisJoseph Socrates, He asked the judge in the case to put an end to what he calls the “degrading spectacle” of having a lawyer he didn’t choose.
Following the resignation of his lawyer, For Pedro Delthe court ordered the appointment of a unofficial lawyer to ensure the defense of the former ruler.
Now, in a request, José Sócrates wrote to the Court asking them to end “with the pitiful and degrading spectacle”. The show “to see someone on television who claims to be my lawyer, without me having ever given him any mandate”he wrote.
José Sócrates also said in the document that he was your right to defense is at stake and that this right cannot be sacrificed “with allegations of urgency, nor with trial deadlines suggested by leaders of the Superior Council of the Judiciary” (in a reference to a press interview).
The Court knows, said José Sócrates in the document, that this right to defense cannot be guaranteed by those who have no knowledge of the process and who have not been given time to consult it, nor conditions to follow the presentation of documents at a hearing.
The important thing is, the former prime minister summarized: “I choose my lawyer”. In the document, José Sócrates began by recalling that there is a deadline 20 dias to choose a lawyer and who will do so.
José Sócrates, 68 years old, is accused (accused after instruction) of 22 crimesincluding three for corruption, for allegedly having received money to benefit in dossiers distinctly the Lena group, the Espírito Santo Group (GES) and the Algarve resort of Vale do Lobo.