PGR says it is unforgivable for Portugal not to use European funds to reform Justice
“It seems undeniable to us, in a poor country with flexible resources, that it is unthinkable and unforgivable to allocate the opportunity that the country is given to take advantage of European funds so that the world of the judiciary, in particular the Public Ministry, gains effective and unmissable progress in the field of technologies and information systems,” said Lucília Gago.
In the speech given at the opening ceremony of the judicial year, at the Supreme Court of Justice, in Lisbon, the Attorney General of the Republic reiterated that “it is not enough” to invoke the autonomy of the MP and that it is necessary to create “effective conditions” for prosecutors to be able to meet the objectives, rejecting public criticism of delays in completing the investigation of media cases.
“At the time of assuming responsibility for the delays and delays recorded, (…) it becomes easy – and very comfortable and strategically convenient for many – to point the finger, exclusively, at the Public Prosecutor’s Office”, he said. The magistrate referred that “the signs of discredit and control in the judiciary are presented today as undeniable” and asked for regional meetings to precede the various situations of lack of means.
Calling for an end to “states of denial” about Justice and the anticipation of “diagnoses, protocols and working groups that do not fit into a global strategy”, Lucília Gago defended that “time is pressing” for understandings on legislative diplomas – namely in the judicial organization and in the areas of the Penal Code and the Penal Procedure Code – which renewed confidence among citizens.
With regard to corruption and economic and financial crime, the Attorney General of the Republic highlighted the importance of the MP achieving “a specialized intervention” to “ensure that criminal agents are deprived of all the economic benefits obtained, without contemplations and without rewards”. .
As for the fight against domestic violence – which has not yet registered a sign of slowing down, despite the investment -, Lucília Gago assumed the possibility of extending the Integrated Specialized Sections of Domestic Violence to “new areas of intervention”.
Lastly, the Attorney General of the Republic did not forget the controversy over the metadata law, alluding to the “technical-legal issues that brought into question the electronic evidence in a matter already carried out and in all present and future issues”. In this sense, she maintains the clarification of the issue, remembering how “great convulsions, generating many doubts and observed that are not resolved”.
“The criminal investigation suffered the impact of such upheavals, lacking the activity of the Public Prosecutor’s Office that the legislative power defines what are the legal rules that they must observe and what procedures they can adopt in the investigation, with the hope that 2023 will be the year of clarification”, completed.
JGO/FC/IMA // FPA
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