Lucília Gago has been answering MPs questions in parliament this morning
Attorney General, Lucília Gago, has been answering MPs questions in parliament this morning – months after the clamour for her to do so began (in the wake of high profile investigations into political movers and shakers).
The woman at the helm of criminal investigation for the last six years (her mandate comes to an end next month) began by saying that telephone wire tappings have fallen from 15,441 in 2015, when they were at their peak, to 10,553 in 2023, in other words “they have been decreasing steadily”.
Rising above criticism that has been coming thick and fast since Operation Influencer toppled the Socialist government last year, she also maintained that “the law, as it stands, is fine” – and that “the Public Prosecutor’s Office only uses wiretaps when they are essential”.
As for situations in which interceptions have “dragged on” over time, she justified them as being “absolutely exceptional (…) And it’s because we recognize the need, for the purposes of the investigation, for this to happen.”
On the subject of the violation of judicial secrecy, Ms Gago spoke of a “presumption of guilt” on the part of the Public Prosecutor’s Office which, she said, was only “of interest to the defendants and their respective defences, as is good to see, for the purpose of victimising themselves, diverting the focus from suspicions that fall on them, namely crimes of notable gravity”.
Still on this topic, Lucília Gago suggested that if the aim was to “pursue and punish those responsible for violating the secrecy of justice”, then we would have to “accept the use of intrusive means of obtaining evidence, namely telephone tapping”.
As for the issue of human resources in the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Lucília Gago said that, contrary to what has been/ is being said in Parliament, these have not, “in fact, increased”. She said that the report shows that there will be 1,722 magistrates on December 31, 2023, 69 more than in 2022. She stressed, however, that these figures already include probationary magistrates (42), who will only take up their duties in November. And she pointed to a “circumstance” that “constitutes a factor that aggravates the constraints”: “the weight of women is more than two thirds (…) If we take into account the number of magistrates entering and leaving since 2015 until last May, there has been a decrease of 12 magistrates,” she added, stressing that there is also a shortage of 400 bailiffs in the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
As for the arrests in the Madeira case, in which the detainees were deprived of their liberty for 21 days, Lucília Gago said (as she said in her television interview with RTP in July) that these were “exceptional situations”.
Ms Gago also wanted to say a few words about the crime of domestic violence which, she pointed out, “has an enormous expression today”.
Before the MPs’ questions began, Ms Gago recalled that this was the “fourth time” she had been heard in the Assembly of the Republic and that she “merely suggested” that the hearing should only take place once the annual activity report had been completed. “At no time did I ask for this hearing to be postponed,” she pointed out.
She went on to explain that there was a “delay” in sending data which had prevented the document from being released earlier, partly due to the strikes by judicial staff.
As early reports have stressed, Ms Gago wanted to stress the “Dantesque effort” being made by magistrates to carry out their mission, within a deficit framework, “despite the insistent signals to this effect regarding the extreme situation in the courts”.
Reaction to this morning’s session will come later, but for now, as in July, Ms Gago showed herself to be convinced of her own and her department’s correctness.
Lucília Gago was speaking in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees about the annual report on the activities of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), following requests presented by the Left Bloc and PAN.
In response to the MPs’ various questions, Lucília Gago began by saying that “not even 15 hours” would be enough to answer all the questions and that she was therefore only going to focus on those that seemed “essential at the moment”.
Source material: Jornal de Notícias
