A massive legal battle is underway between the Public Ministry and the top brass of EDP, António Mexia and João Manso Neto.
Both men have been implicated in a long-running case for alleged corruption, and on Friday public prosecutors upped-the-ante by call for the men’s ‘suspension’ from duty’ and posting of €2 million bail.
EDP has condemned the request, saying it lacks foundation.
Mexia and Manso Neto are refusing to budge.
They themselves have already lodged a request with the Court of Appeal to have ‘superjudge’ Carloa Alexandre removed from their case – on the grounds that he ‘lacks partiality’ (in other words, they believe he thinks they are guilty).
The issue has been dragging on for years, and has to do with CMEC contracts drawn up in the Sócrates era, involving former economy minister Manuel Pinho, and said to have cost consumers well over €2.5 billion (click here).
Two years ago, Sol reported that the case could have ended up ‘in the lake’ due to the judge tasked with it at the time deeming ‘important information’ inadmissible (click here).
That judge has since been replaced by Carlos Alexandre – notorious for his ‘dog-with-a-bone’ approach to cases, particularly when they involve the whiff of corruption by the country’s ‘elites’.
