In its ruling, the appeal court stated that the reasons given for his removal were “unfounded”.
“The request ... does not demonstrate that there is any serious motive ... adequate to generate suspicions of the subjective impartiality of the judge,” states the ruling issued by the appeal court judges, Cid Geraldo and his deputy, Ana Sebastião.
Sócrates’s lawyers had lodged the request after Alexandre in an interview with SIC television on 7 September said that he had no money in friends’ accounts, nor bank accounts in the name of friends. The defence argued that these, among other comments in the interview, represented a breach of impartiality on the part of Alexandre, who is overseeing the investigation dubbed Operation Marquês at the Central Court of Criminal Instruction (TCIC) in Lisbon.
In its ruling, the appeal court took the view that the television interview touched on the judge’s life and career in acceptable ways, and that with his comments on money in bank accounts he was referring to the type of behaviour that he had come across “in many cases”.
It stated that Alexandre “only intended to mean that his income is that which is visible and in his name and that he has not sought any way of hiding other income that he does not indeed have.”
Operation Marquês has 12 official suspects, including Sócrates, who was held in prison on remand for more than nine months after being detained at Lisbon airport in November 2014. He was released to house arrest in September last year, and finally freed the following month, although he remains barred from travelling abroad or contacting other suspects in the case. He has denied all charges.