Rule of Secrecy of Justice has been violated ‘throughout democracy’, says Marcelo
Calls for reform of the justice system amplified last week, following the catastrophic ‘leak’ of tapped telephone conversations between former prime minister António Costa and his minister of infrastructures, João Galamba.
The leak, quite apart from potentially complicating Mr Costa’s aspirations for Europe, put a big question mark over the government’s case in a €6 million claim for unfair dismissal.
It saw criticism from every quarter of the political spectrum: the time has come to staunch these leaks/ improve the whole justice system, which appears to thrive on ‘leaking information’ at potentially opportune (for some)/ ghastly (for others) moments.
And it has seen President Marcelo admit that “Portuguese democracy has known for many years about the problem and the debate on Secrecy of Justice, and leaks from Secrecy of Justice.”
Put another way, ‘Secrecy of Justice’ means anything but – which it shouldn’t.
Sometimes the ‘rule’ is violated with a discreet nudge and a wink, other times with a full-blown television exposé (as happened last week).
However Secrecy of Justice may be violated, last week’s dropping António Costa into the soup seems to have crossed the red line: the Attorney General has opened an investigation as to how this particular leak was able to take place. It is particularly embarrassing that these were wiretaps recorded in the context of Operation Influencer, but already deemed ‘unnecessary’ for the purposes of public prosecutors. So why were they not destroyed? Who made the decision to pass them on to journalists just as Mr Costa is vying for a top job in Brussels?
Talking to the press as he surveyed 50 years of work of a cartoonist (famous for sending up politicians) Marcelo referred to “a reality that has existed throughout democracy” (the Portuguese inability to keep a lid on Secrecy of Justice).
“Naturally, it is one of the important points in a reform of justice to be considered”, he said.
“For a long time there has been agreement in Portuguese society about rethinking Portuguese justice, reforming justice, and now (with these latest leaks, enormous in terms of how much damage they could do) this has been reaffirmed.
“It is an important task that the parties have in hand to be able to realise,” the country’s head of State concluded.
