Judge drops corruption charges against Portugal's ex-PM Socrates

A Portuguese judge on Friday dropped all corruption charges against former Prime Minister Jose Socrates who was arrested in 2014 but was yet to announce whether Socrates would stand trial on tax fraud accusations.

Judge Ivo Rosa of the country's top criminal court said accusations of corruption presented by prosecutors were weak, inconsistent or lacked sufficient evidence, while the statute of limitations had run out on some of them.