Ex-Judges, Former Benfica President on Trial in Portugal’s Supreme Court

The nation awoke this week to the rare sight of former senior judges and a one-time Benfica president swapping the comforts of private life for the wooden benches of Portugal’s highest court. Behind the marble façade of Lisbon’s Supreme Court of Justice, the so-called Operação Lex trial is finally under way, promising months of testimony about money, influence and the limits of judicial integrity.

Why This Trial Matters for Portugal

The Supreme Court of Justice, normally reserved for appeals, is acting as a court of first instance because several defendants once enjoyed judicial prerogatives. That procedural twist, coupled with the presence of ex-Benfica boss Luís Filipe Vieira, has turned the hearings into a prime-time legal drama. Observers fear the case could erode public confidence if the evidence confirms a network of corruption inside the judiciary. Prosecutors allege the defendants traded court decisions for personal gain, siphoning more than €1.5 M in illicit advantages and laundering the proceeds through layered financial schemes.

Who Is in the Dock

Sitting closest to the three-judge panel is Rui Rangel, once a star of the Lisbon Court of Appeal and now the man facing the heftiest tally of 21 criminal counts. Beside him are Fátima Galante, his former colleague and partner, Luís Vaz das Neves, ex-president of the same appellate court, businessman José Veiga, and football magnate Luís Filipe Vieira. The charge sheet lists corruption, abuse of power, fraud, money-laundering, forgery, usurpation of functions, and undue receipt of benefits. While Rangel and Galante already lost their robes—he was dismissed, she placed on compulsory retirement—a criminal conviction could still strip them of pension rights and expose them to multi-year prison sentences.

The Road to the Supreme Court

Operação Lex surfaced in 2018 when investigators raided homes and chambers in search of evidence that certain rulings were being "tailor-made" for wealthy litigants. A marathon pre-trial phase produced thousands of pages, a flurry of procedural appeals, and the unusual replacement of the original rapporteur judge last spring. The freshly appointed trio—José Piedade, Ernesto Nascimento, and Jorge Gonçalves—opted to move most hearings to the Lisbon Military Court on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to ease the Supreme Court’s congested docket. Only 16 of the initial 17 defendants remain after the death of businessman Ruy Carrera Moura, a reminder of how long the wheels of poder judicial can turn.

What Happens Next

In the opening session Piedade branded the case "historic" and laid out strict courtroom rules, from speaking time to document handling. The panel will first hear the public prosecutor’s evidence, including intercepted calls, financial trails across offshore accounts, and alleged quid-pro-quo messages extracted from encrypted phones. Defence teams plan to argue that funds described as bribes were merely legitimate consultancy fees, and that certain recordings are procedurally invalid. A verdict is unlikely before mid-2026, but interim rulings on evidence could already influence parallel disciplinary proceedings pending at the Conselho Superior da Magistratura.

Public Trust and Institutional Fallout

Legal experts warn that a guilty verdict against former judges could trigger a wave of institutional reform, from tighter asset-declaration rules to revamped disciplinary statutes. The Portuguese Bar Association says the episode shows the need for greater transparency in the assignment of cases, while the Association of Judges insists that trying magistrates proves the system’s self-correcting capacity. Outside the courthouse, Benfica supporters wrestle with the spectacle of their erstwhile president accused of trading football influence for legal favours, yet many note the club itself is not on trial. Whatever the final judgment, Operação Lex will shape debates about judicial credibility, political accountability, and the price of public trust for years to come.