Lisbon, Oct. 13, 2024 (Lusa) - The trial of the main BES case begins on Tuesday and no one can predict when it will end, as it involves 18 defendants, 733 witnesses, 135 assistants and more than 300 offences.
This mega-case, which has already reached 215 volumes after an indictment with more than 4,000 pages, begins to be judged more than a decade after the collapse of the Espírito Santo Group (GES) in August 2014.
The main defendant in the case is former BES chairman Ricardo Salgado, who has been charged with 65 offences, including criminal association, active corruption, document forgery, qualified fraud and money laundering.
The slow pace of the process has already caused some charges to be dropped, and at the beginning of this month the Lisbon Central Criminal Court declared that 11 crimes were time-barred, three of which aainst former GES chairman Ricardo Salgado.
The ex-banker, who was initially charged with a total of 65 offences, will now be tried for 62 criminal offences, after two crimes of document forgery and one of infidelity expired.
The recent survey of crimes at risk of statute of limitations carried out by the Public Prosecutor's Office also indicates that Ricardo Salgado could face another crime of forgery at the end of November and another two crimes at the end of December.
In January 2025, three more crimes of document forgery will expire. One of infidelity will fall at the end of February, and another three of infidelity will fall by 28 March.
More than a decade after the collapse of BES/GES and the start of the investigation, more crimes are at risk of expiring by the end of the first quarter of 2025, namely those of the defendants Francisco Machado da Cruz, Amílcar Morais Pires, Pedro Góis Pinto, Pedro Almeida e Costa, Cláudia Boal Faria, Etienne Cadosch, Michel Creton, João Alexandre Silva, and Nuno Escudeiro.
Regarded as one of the biggest lawsuits in the history of Portuguese justice, this case, investigated by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) of the Public Prosecutor's Office, brought together 242 inquiries in the main case (which were joined) and gathered complaints from more than 300 people, both natural and legal, living in Portugal and abroad.
Due to the vast number of offences, defendants, assistants, witnesses, facts, and documents in this case, the BES computer case has eight terabytes of information, corresponding to many thousands of files.
Meanwhile, the trial room for the BES case at the Lisbon Central Criminal Court, in the Campus de Justiça, Lisbon, will have 67 seats for defence lawyers and assistants, as well as accommodating 16 individual defendants and some members of the public.
The trial will be broadcast live to two press rooms in buildings A and B of the Campus de Justiça, which can accommodate 32 media professionals. Other spaces are being evaluated to allow remote monitoring by more assistants and the general public.
For the trial, presided over by Judge Helena Susano, an auxiliary clerk has been assigned exclusively. This clerk will be supported, when necessary, by another auxiliary clerk and the other bailiffs working in the case unit in question.
The sound, evidence recording, and remote communications systems have been tested, and computer and technological equipment, including computers and screens for viewing documents, has been made available. The videoconferencing system is being finalised.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the collapse of GES caused losses of more than €11.8 billion.
FC/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
