A truly dismal story has emerged from the country’s ongoing judicial ‘strike’. Thanks to the combination of a Bank Holiday (tomorrow) and courts’ stop-start form of operating – with clerks and officials all working to rule for months, with little respite in sight – “at least 12 people arrested in the Metropolitan area of Lisbon are going to be freed today”. The people were arrested in “cases of homicide, domestic violence and drug trafficking”, according to the Syndicate of Judicial Employees, which has explained that: ‘The April 25 holiday was sandwiched between two strikes with no minimum services, and detainees who finish their 48-hour deadline between these three days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) will finish their deadline before the Saturday morning shift at the Central Criminal Investigation Court’. In short, the law ensures that several detainees must be ‘free to go…’
Liberty Day ensures freedom of detainees suspected of murder, domestic violence and drug trafficking
