Justice minister’s ‘silence’ already a point of controversy
Portugal’s minority Liberal Initiative party has been the first to request an urgent hearing of the Minister of Justice and her two predecessors following Saturday’s ‘third world’ escape of five inmates from the Vale de Judeus Prison in Alcoentre.
The news of this dismal indictment of security at the nation’s ‘high security prisons’ has already travelled ‘across the world’.
In Argentina, for example, the mother of one of the victims of escaped convict Rodolfo Lohrmann is described as “in despair” of ever discovering where her son’s body was disposed of. She was hoping to be able to speak with Lohrmann once he was extradited to Argentina.
And in England, the fact that Mark Cameron Roscaleer is once more ‘free’, has made the tabloids.
But here in Portugal, commentators are remarking that the ‘silence’ from the Minister of Justice has been bizarre (at best), unpardonable at worst.
Thus IL’s initiative today: “We believe that, at this point, further clarification is needed and, for this reason, we will immediately file a request to call the Minister of Justice, Rita Alacrão Júdice, to parliament as a matter of urgency,” said IL’s leader Rui Rocha, in a statement to the media.
Liberal Initiative also wants to hear the current minister’s predecessors, Catarina Sarmento e Castro (minister between 2022 and 2024) and Francisca Van Dunem (minister between 2015-2022), who was “responsible for a restructuring of the prison services that took place between 2017 and 2018” (the era when the four watch towers at Vale de Judeus were demolished, in favour of surveillance cameras, that have no one watching them….)
In addition to the current and former political leaders, IL also wants to call to parliament the director-general of Reinsertion and Prison Services, Rui Abrunhosa, and the presidents of the National Union of the Prison Guard Corps, the Union Association of Prison Guard Corps Managers and the Independent Union of the Prison Guard Corps.
“They are the people and entities that, at this point, seem to us to be the ones that can contribute to clarifying what happened, because one thing is certain: something failed. And we’re talking about a security matter that is obviously of concern to the Portuguese,” said Rocha.
Considering that the circumstances of the escape known so far “seem disturbing”, the Rui Rocha said that, rather than pointing the finger at the current or previous government, it is important to “clarify what went wrong and what can be done to ensure that this type of situation does not happen in the future”.
Even so, he considers Rui Abrunhosa is not in a position to remain in the post of Director General of Reintegration and Prison Services, as he believes that “whoever has the maximum responsibility for the prison services should, at this point, do some reflection”.
“When something doesn’t go well, I believe that, often, in order to restore public confidence, the first step is for the person in charge to leave their post free so that decisions can be made”.
Mr Abrunhosa however has said that, right now, he sees no reason for his resignation. This even though he admitted at Sunday’s press conference that the fence the five prisoners scaled with the help of nothing more than an extendable ladder was designed to be electrified. The only reason it wasn’t is that when the current was turned on, all the power blew at the prison.
Writing today in Correio da Manhã, deputy director Alfredo Leite, said that Abrunhosa’s failure to fix this technical problem was “irresponsible.
“Recognising that something has failed and not resigning is not accepting the consequences of your actions. What happened is much too serious (for him) to continue at his post”.
Unsurprisingly, this topic was almost the sole focus of last night’s satirical programme ‘Isto é Gozar com Quem Trabalha’, with host Ricardo Araújo Pereira concluding that last weekend saw people finding it “difficult to get into a maternity unit, and easy to get out of a prison”. His solution, for all the pregnant women faced with the dilemma over how to be attended, was to “give them all ladders…” ND
Source material: Lusa/ Correio da Manhã/ SIC Notícias
