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The former banker returned to court two years later to give a statement, which he ended up not doing. The last time he was in court, he claimed he was in no condition to give a statement due to his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The former president of the Espírito Santo Group (GES), Ricardo Salgado, was in court this Friday to give statements in the trial of the EDP Case, after the medical examination to which he was subjected indicated that the former banker could be interrogated.
The summons took place two years and one day after Ricardo Salgado was present in court for the last time, then in the trial of the separate Operation Marquês case, on February 8, 2022, when claimed not to be in a position to make a statement for having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, the same pathology that was the basis of the neurological examination carried out now in the context of the EDP Case.
Upon arrival at the Justice Campus, in Lisbon, Salgado was visibly weakened. Without making any statements to journalists, he walked towards the court in a slow pace and always hand in hand with his wife, Maria João Salgado.
Salgado left the courtroom a few minutes later, again without making a statement.
“It has long been proven by independent experts that Dr. Ricardo Salgado suffers from Alzheimer’s. (…) My client often doesn’t know where he is, he forgets the names of close family members, so it’s not just in defense of dignity his human rights, it is in defense of his history and in defense of the dignity of Portuguese Justice. He cannot consistently clarify a process with this complexity”, said Francisco Proença de Carvalho, Ricardo Salgado’s lawyer, as he left the court.
Ricardo Salgado is on trial in the EDP Case for active corruption for illegal acts, active corruption and money launderingin a case in which the former Minister of Economy Manuel Pinho (passive corruption for illicit acts, passive corruption, money laundering and tax fraud) and his wife, Alexandra Pinho (laundering and tax fraud – in material co-authorship with her husband) are also accused ).