Lisbon, Nov. 27, 2024 (Lusa) - The BES Angola (BESA) trial in Portugal is due to start on 29 April 2025 and will run until 10 July, with hearings three days a week, morning and afternoon, which may clash with the BES/GES trial.
According to Judge Noé Bettencourt's order of 15 November, to which Lusa has had access, the Lisbon Central Criminal Court has reserved the mornings and afternoons of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for the trial, between 29 April and 10 July 2025, "without prejudice to the fact that, from time to time, changes may be made to the days of the week depending on the interests or reasonable unavailability of the procedural participants (...)".
The unavailability of schedules may not be just a possibility, since the BES/GES case, which judges the collapse of the Espírito Santo universe, has sessions scheduled until 2026, with sessions on various days of the week, also in the morning and afternoon, in a case with common defendants and lawyers, namely the former banker and chairman of Banco Espírito Santo (BES), Ricardo Salgado, and the bank's former director, Amílcar Morais Pires, and their respective defences.
The news of the scheduling of the trial in the BESA case was first reported by SIC TV News on Tuesday.
On 15 July this year, the Central Criminal Investigation Court in Lisbon decided to send former banker and BESA chairman Álvaro Sobrinho, former banker and BES chairman Ricardo Salgado and former BES directors Morais Pires, Rui Silveira and Hélder Bataglia to trial, validating the public prosecutor's (‘MP’) accusation in full.
At issue in this case are offences of aggravated abuse of trust, money laundering and aggravated fraud.
The public prosecutor's office charged Álvaro Sobrinho with 18 offences of aggravated abuse of trust (five of which in co-authorship) and five of money laundering, and the former chairman of BES, Ricardo Salgado, with five offences of abuse of trust and one of aggravated fraud (all in co-authorship).
The MP also charged Amílcar Morais Pires with one offence of abuse of trust and another of fraud, Helder Bataglia with one offence of abuse of trust and Rui Silveira with one offence of fraud.
When reading the pre-trial hearing decision, Judge Gabriela Assunção emphasised that the prosecution's evidence was "extensive", including computer and financial expertise, various documents, witness statements, dozens of searches, letters rogatory to investigate bank accounts abroad and telephone tappings.
The indictment in the BESA case was handed down in July 2022 and concerns BES's granting of financing to BESA, in the form of Interbank Money Market (IMM) credit lines and bank overdrafts. As a result of this allegedly criminal activity, on 31 July 2014 BES was exposed to BESA to the tune of almost €4.8 billion.
IMA/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
