Of the 707 investigations into economic crimes completed last year just 63 ended in prosecution, and of these there were only 18 convictions.
The small number of cases prosecuted by the Central Bureau of Criminal Investigation (DCIAP) for crimes including receiving and sending corrupt payments, and money laundering, left the vast majority being discharged as the court found that the evidence gathered by DCIAP was not sufficiently robust to justify a conviction.
The data is extracted from the Attorney General’s 2012 annual report which claimed there was 'difficulty in proving economic crimes.' This is the job of the DCIAP and its performance is poor in other areas too as last year more than half of the investigations stared by the bureau are still not finished, or ‘still under investigation.’
Of 1,353 cases on DCIAP’s books, only 707 came to an end during 2012. Of the remainder, 215 were dropped and 450 are ‘unresolved.’
"Justice is slow and when gathering evidence of these crimes, especially those of a financial nature, the proof dematerialises quickly."
This statement was, rather surprisingly, from Luis de Sousa, the director of the organisation Transparency and Integrity which normally would be a hash critic of an inadequate prosecution service and slow justice.
The unwritten assumption by many is that the bigger the crook and the crime the more likely any case will be conveniently delayed or shelved.
Comments
Not the perversion from Salazar times which aimed to achieve the opposite for individuals by frustrating the law, but the notion that someone with genuine evidence is actually doing a social good by going public rather than being dishonourable and sneaky.
Note from the press and TV the severe trauma recently caused by the PGR's questionnaire to all in the Portuguese Justice system asking them to comment on illegalities known to them.
Knowing that almost no-one in the Justice system would reply sensibly (which directly parallels a similarly ignored questionnaire of a couple of years ago to the Municipals), but that the markets are watching 24/7, was this yet another Troika inspired piece of malevolence ?