Judicial Council can only suspend Rangel after being notified by MPLex Operation01 FEBRUARY 2018
00:38
Rute Coelho
Judges Rui Rangel and Fátima Galante are still working in Relação de Lisboa, despite being accused in Operation Lex, because the Superior Council of Judiciary is waiting for the PGR to report on the case
Judge Rui Rangel, accused in Operation Lex on suspicion of using his influence with his magistrates to influence judicial decisions - allegedly in favor of Luís Filipe Vieira, president of Benfica, or businessman José Veiga - is still in office on 9 .ª Criminal Section of the Lisbon Court of Appeal. The ex-wife, the adjudicator Fátima Galante, of the 6th civil section of the Relação de Lisboa, also defendant - as well as ten other people, among them Luís Filipe Vieira -, is also in active duty. A suspension may only be made following a decision of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), the disciplinary body of the judges.
What has not happened since the CSM will only meet after being officially informed by the Public Ministry of the constitution as defendants of the two judges. The vice-president of the board, Mário Morgado, justified the action: "The CSM will analyze the situation as soon as it receives official information on the subject. Any measures within the scope of the Council's powers will be published in due course."
https://www.dn.pt/DNMultimedia/DOCS+PDFS/Opera%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20LEX%20Luis%20Filipe%20Vieira%20e%20Rui%20Rangel.pdfThe DN learned from the advisory body of this disciplinary body that the CSM can only meet in plenary to decide on the interim suspension of the two judges when it receives an official communication from the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) on the process of the Lex operation. Or, alternatively, an official communication from the Attorney General's Office (PGR).
In declarations to the DN the Supreme said that it does not have this obligation: "Who has to send the communication to the Superior Council of Magistracy is the Public Prosecutor, that is who has the investigation." However, the PGR, which has sent press releases on the case, did not know until yesterday afternoon that it had to inform the disciplinary body of the judges. The DN asked if the PGR was going to send this formal communication, but until the closing of this edition there was no response.
It is certain that Rui Rangel and Fátima Galante end up having the credibility and the image reached since Operation Lex is related to the alleged abuse of their judicial functions.
And while there is no decision of the CSM may, in theory, be distributed, by lot, processes in the Relation. "This formality is unnecessary," as summarized by penitentiary Paulo Sá e Cunha. He goes on to explain: "The Superior Council of Magistrates may, on the basis of the public facts and press releases of the PGR, meet in plenary and decide to open a disciplinary process to the two judges, taking preventive measures such as the temporary suspension of functions. " Another way of suspending the judges, Sá e Cunha says, is "in the context of the criminal process a measure of coercion of suspension of duties is applied."
But the two justices of the Lisbon Relation will only be heard in first interrogation at the Supreme Court on February 8 and 9. And the next CSM plenary is on 6 February. Unless an emergency plenum is scheduled, the two magistrates will be in active duty until one of these dates.
All the defendants will be heard in the Supreme Court because there was a "process connection". Yesterday, at the end of the afternoon, Judge counselor Pires da Graça of the 3rd criminal court of the Supreme Court of Justice began hearing the five defendants who were detained in order to respect the hearing deadline 48 hours after the arrest.
The detainees are the lawyer José Santos Martins, a friend of Rui Rangel, and his son Bernardo André, who will have made available their bank accounts to be deposited funds that allegedly would be delivered to the judge Rui Rangel who would receive them as payment by decisions which it was supposed to influence; the justice officer Otávio Correia, a former companion of Rangel, Rita Figueira, and Jorge Barroso, lawyer of Luís Filipe Vieira in real estate related business.
Operation Lex investigates suspicions of corruption / misappropriation, money laundering, influence peddling and tax fraud. 33 searches were carried out by the PJ's anti-corruption unit on Tuesday, of which 20 were domiciled, namely Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Luís Filipe Vieira's house; the residence of the two judges and three law firms.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of the evening, SIC reported that Benfica lawyer João Correia has called for nullity of the searches that took place on Tuesday in the Benfica SAD.
At stake in this investigation is the suspicion that Judge Rui Rangel sells the influence he would have with his colleagues in the Relation and even magistrates in other courts to influence judicial decisions, as would have happened in a case in which economic and financial crimes were committed in the hiring of the player João Pinto for Sporting. "If the lawsuits in question have been tainted by Rangel's influence, parties that feel injured may be entitled to reopen proceedings," analyzes Paulo Sá e Cunha. "And if it proves to be in judgment that the influence of the judge Rui Rangel led to the practice of illicit decisions, other judges could still be constituted defendants", concludes.
Criminal lawyer Fernando Silva explains that "any possibility that the lawsuits are tainted must be reported to the Public Prosecutor's Office. The PM itself may order reopening of proceedings."
According to Lusa, who cites sources linked to the case, the alleged private provision of legal services and the concealment of tax amounts received by Rui Rangel are other situations also at issue in this case.
https://www.dn.pt/portugal/interior/csm-so-suspende-rangel-depois-de-ser-informado-pelo-ministerio-publico-9088720.html
