Leader writer warns: “Remember the name of this judge!”
Against the backdrop of so many other events this week, the promotion of a former Lisbon appeal court judge to the Supreme Court has passed a little by the wayside – in spite of the judge in question being under investigation in two criminal processes.
This is the way things appear to happen in Portugal: many simply turned a blind eye.
But tabloid deputy editorial director general Eduardo Dâmaso isn’t paid to turn a blind eye – and he has not minced his words today.
In a short but brutal ‘editorial note’, he advises Correio da Manhã’s readers to “remember the name of this judge!
“Here is something that is difficult to understand in Justice. But it doesn’t worry anybody. Former Lisbon appeal court judge Orlando Nascimento, investigated in two disciplinary inquiries and in two criminal processes, has been promoted to the Supreme Court”, he writes.
“He is suspected of having manipulated the distribution of cases – something that undermines an essential dimension in the trust citizens have in Justice.
“Nascimento is suspected of having ‘fixed’ the distribution of a case by (another former judge) Rui Rangel against journalists of CM who ended up being condemned and having bank accounts frozen, when later they ended up being absolved in the Supreme Court.
“While we are on this subject – the reversion of decisions in lower courts by rulings in Courts of Appeal, like the seizure of more than €80 million belonging to Álvaro Sobrinho (which was later reversed by Rui Rangel in the Court of Appeal) any citizen who is aware will be full of fear on entering a courtroom.
“Remember the name of this judge, dear readers, particularly if you have judicial issues that could end up in the Supreme Court.
“The arrival of Nascimento at the STJ is the face of shame but also of grave suspicion that this court may be neither impartial nor fair.
“The whole idea of Justice and Rule of Law is being destroyed”, Dâmaso concludes.
Público, meantime, has confirmed that public prosecutors are still investigating Orlando Nascimento, who is due to take his place in the Supreme Court on October 3.
“At issue are the alleged irregular distribution of cases in the (appeals) court and suspicions of abuse of power in the free transfer of the Court of Appeal hall to an arbitration presided over by retired judge Luís Vaz das Neves, his predecessor in the presidency of the Court of Appeal and one of the main defendants in the Operação Lex case”, says the paper.
A source at the public prosecutor’s office confirmed to Público that Nascimento has been under investigation for the last four years, but because there has been no formal accusation made against him, the CSM (Superior Council of Magistrates) believes there is no reason to block his candidacy to the Supreme Court – the highest court in the land.
As for Operation Lex’s charges being made public four years ago, a trial has not yet moved forwards due to the number of appeals that have been lodged.
But on the subject of cases ‘overruled’ from one court to another – today has seen former mayor of Caminha Miguel Alves, a former Secretary of State and right-hand to former prime minister António Costa, hear that the ‘absolution’ handed down to him and fellow defendant Manuela Sousa (previously Couto) last year, was flawed – and the whole case has to be tried again.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
