Lisbon, Oct. 18, 2024 (Lusa) - The Public Prosecutor's Office sent a request to the court on Friday for special assistance for former banker Ricardo Salgado in the context of the BES/GES case.
According to the document signed by the prosecutors present at the trial underway at the Lisbon Central Criminal Court, the Public Prosecutor's Office wants a certificate to be issued for the documents handed over by Ricardo Salgado's defence during his plea and his statements in court on Tuesday, when he was formally identified as a defendant in the trial, with a view to the establishment of the most closely supervised person procedure.
According to lawyer Ana Pires, coordinator of RSA's Family and Minors Department, the granting of the status of accompanied adult ‘takes place after a situation of incapacity has been verified’, and an expert examination is usually carried out in this regard or a previous expert examination is used.
‘The court realises that the person cannot use all their faculties and appoints a person to replace the incapacitated person. The beneficiary is asked to say who they want to be their carer and it can be their wife. If that's not possible, the court may not accept the choice either and appoint someone else,’ she said, clarifying that in the abstract, it could be someone from outside the family.
The expert also pointed out that the designated accompanying person does not make any declarations for the person they are replacing.
The accompanied adult regime applies only to adults and is mainly used for civil purposes. The designated substitute is mainly used to make decisions for the person who is diminished in relation to non-judicial matters.
The former chairman of BES, Ricardo Salgado, is the main defendant in the BES/GES case and is in court for 62 offences, allegedly committed between 2009 and 2014.
Among the offences charged are one of criminal association, 12 of active corruption in the private sector, 29 of qualified fraud, five of infidelity, one of market manipulation, seven of money laundering and seven of falsifying documents.
In addition to Ricardo Salgado, 17 other defendants are also on trial, namely Amílcar Morais Pires, Manuel Espírito Santo Silva, Isabel Almeida, Machado da Cruz, António Soares, Paulo Ferreira, Pedro Almeida Costa, Cláudia Boal Faria, Nuno Escudeiro, João Martins Pereira, Etienne Cadosch, Michel Creton, Pedro Serra and Pedro Pinto, as well as the companies Rio Forte Investments, Espírito Santo Irmãos, SGPS and Eurofin.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the collapse of GES caused losses of more than €11.8 billion.
JGO/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
