Ricardo Salgado sentenced to 13 years but exempted from serving sentence due to Alzheimer's
Lisbon's Central Criminal Court suspended the prison sentence of former banker Ricardo Salgado on Tuesday, condemned to 13 years in cumulative sentencing.
Court suspends Ricardo Salgado's sentence due to Alzheimer's disease
Lisbon's Central Criminal Court suspended the prison sentence of former banker Ricardo Salgado on Tuesday, condemned to 13 years in cumulative sentencing. According to record.pt, the decision was made in the context of the EDP and Operação Marquês cases, based on the defendant's state of health.
Judge Ana Paula Rosa stated there was no doubt regarding the crimes committed, but considered that Salgado's clinical condition justified the suspension of the sentence. As a condition, the defendant is obliged to submit semi-annually reports proving his health situation.
Convictions in both cases
In the EDP case, Salgado was sentenced in 2024 to six years and three months in prison for corruption of then minister Manuel Pinho (2005–2009), with the objective of benefiting the Espírito Santo Group in urban planning processes, among others. In Operação Marquês, he had been sentenced in 2022 to eight years in prison for breach of trust, related to the diversion of 10.7 million euros from GES in 2011.
Defence argues the defendant did not exist at the time of the facts
The lawyer Francisco Proença de Carvalho, who represents Salgado, declared outside the court that "this person at the time of the facts effectively does not exist". The defence recalls that the trials took place already after the diagnosis of the disease — the first expert assessment, conducted in 2017, pointed to symptoms of Alzheimer's.
Proença de Carvalho also left open the possibility of taking action against the Portuguese State "for everything it has been doing" to his client, a decision which, according to the lawyer, will be considered with his close family, namely Salgado's wife.
Source: Google News PT — Crime (pt)