Lisbon, Sept. 2, 2025 (Lusa) - Former prime minister José Sócrates claimed in court on Tuesday that it was the banks and not, as the Public Prosecutor's Office maintains, the Lena group that benefited from the Court of Auditors' rejection of the TGV project in 2012.
José Sócrates is on trial in the Operação Marquês case for, among other charges, allegedly having been corrupted by the Lena business group so that the consortium the group was part of, which in 2010 won the tender to build the Poceirão-Caia section of the high-speed line, would be compensated if the Court of Auditors rejected the project, as it eventually did.
The arbitration court later set the amount of financial compensation at €150 million, and it has still not been paid.
Today, on the fifth day of questioning in the trial, the former prime minister (2005-2011) argued that this amount only covers costs that the consortium actually incurred, considering, on the other hand, that the ‘millionaire compensation’ under suspicion refers to the “swaps” (insurance to cover risks) associated with the financing agreed between the companies and the bank.
At issue, he explained using documentation, is the fact that, by decision of Pedro Passos Coelho's government (2011-2015), the loan granted by several banks to the TGV consortium was reused by the state, through Parpública, after the Court of Auditors rejected it in 2012.
The transfer of €600 million meant that the state also kept the swaps, which, he said, had a negative value of €180 million.
‘These swap indemnities didn't go to Lena, they went to the banks, and the moment they were paid, the clause was extinguished [...] Lena is accused of corruption to obtain an indemnity that the banks actually received, it's the hallucination of it all,’ José Sócrates emphasised.
The former Socialist leader also accused the Public Prosecutor's Office of dishonesty, as all this was already known when the charges were brought in 2017, which earned a protest from Prosecutor Rómulo Mateus.
During the morning, the former prime minister was repeatedly warned by the chair of the panel of judges about the language used, including towards the court.
"The court has no bitterness, the court has no feelings towards the defendants. It never has and it never will. The court is here to do its job," warned Susana Seca, adding that she would not acknowledge "successive considerations regarding" her objectivity.
José Sócrates, 67, has been indicted on 22 counts, including three of corruption.
The trial began on 3 July at Lisbon's Central Criminal Court, and today marks the first session after a month and a half break due to judicial holidays.
There are a total of 21 defendants in the case, who are responsible for 117 economic and financial offences.
The defendants have generally denied any wrongdoing.
IB/ADB // ADB.
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