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Portugal's ex-PM released from prison, put under house arrest

Xinhua, September 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Jose Socrates, Portugal's former Socialist prime minister, was released from prison on Friday night and will remain under house arrest, The Prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The Prosecutor's office said in a statement that Socrates would remain under house arrest without an ankle monitor and is prohibited from contacting other defendants in this case.

Socrates' lawyer said the alteration of preventive prison to house arrest was "insufficient" and would appeal against the decision, adding that Socrates "should be freed, purely and simply, with or without asking for apologies," Portuguese Lusa News Agency reported.

Socrates was detained last year amid allegations of corruption, money laundering and tax fraud, the same year that the country saw its biggest private bank Banco Espirito Santo go bankrupt.

He governed Portugal from 2005 to 2011 and resigned amid a debt crisis which forced him to ask for an international bailout, which the country ended last year following three years of painful austerity.

There has been no formal indictment against Socrates so far and he has claimed he is innocent since he was arrested, recently refusing the offer to remain under house arrest with electronic surveillance. Enditem