LISBON, (Reuters) – Police transferred Portugal’s former Socialist prime minister Jose Socrates back to his cell at a police station late yesterday where he will spend a third night in a row after his shocking arrest and questioning in a corruption investigation.
Criminal judge Carlos Alexandre interrogated Socrates, 57, on Saturday and Sunday as part of an inquiry into suspected tax fraud, corruption and money-laundering, and the questioning will continue on Monday, Socrates’ lawyer Joao Araujo told reporters.
“He’s fine, better than I am. He’s in good spirits,” a visibly tired Araujo said, declining to say whether Socrates had been charged with any crime or admitted to any wrongdoing. The crime of corruption carries a prison term of up to eight years.
Socrates was questioned at the modern Justice Campus in Lisbon inaugurated by him as prime minister in 2009.
The detention, the first involving a former premier in Portugal under democracy, followed arrests of other high-ranking officials or prominent people in separate inquiries in the past few months as prosecutors intensify a fight against corruption in a country notorious for its slow justice system.
It was not clear if the inquiry, known as “Operation Marquis”, was linked to Socrates’ time as premier in 2005-2011.
Police arrested Socrates, 57, at Lisbon airport late on Friday as he arrived from Paris. Three other individuals linked to Socrates were also arrested.
Socrates resigned as prime minister in the middle of his second four-year term in 2011 as an escalating debt crisis forced him to request an international bailout, which imposed painful austerity on Portugal.
