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It was a simple ceremony about the turbulent moment that the Lisbon Court of Appeal (TRL) is experiencing: at its inauguration this Wednesday, one of the first words of Guilhermina Freitas, the new president who is the first woman in office. It was even that he will do everything to put it “in the prestigious place it deserves.” The new president highlighted the need to “regain the confidence of citizens in the decisions” issued in that court.
His predecessor, Orlando Nascimento, is subject to disciplinary proceedings on suspicion of abuse of power. Two judges who were from the Relação and meanwhile left the judiciary – Rui Rangel and Fátima Galante – and the former president, Luís Vaz das Neves, are accused in the process. Operation Lex, suspected of being involved in a corruption scheme.
But it was António Joaquim Piçarra, president of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), the harshest speech of the TRL, which in his words is “at the bottom of the well of honor.” “The facts that put this relationship into question are of extreme and unquestionable gravity,” he said. “They deeply affect the credibility of this institution and of all those who work in it, affecting the entire justice system. And they affect it unfairly: the Lisbon Relation is a serious institution and one of the central pillars of Portuguese justice ”. And he said: “There is hardly a low point in the history of this institution.”
António Joaquim Piçarra highlighted that the criminal charges against these magistrates put “into question the fairness of the appeal decisions, their connection with motivations or personal benefits and the seriousness of the distribution of the cases”: “worse than this cannot be in terms of the reputation of the judges and the credibility of the judicial system. This is the bottom of the well of good repute. It is the darkest tone in the credibility of a court. “Addressing Guilhermina Freitas, he said:” This is where the Lisbon Relationship is and this is where you have to get it from. And you can do it. “
In the event in which only Guilhermina Freitas and António Joaquim Piçarra spoke, the president of the CSM began by emphasizing the election of Guilhermina Freitas -who assumed the position on an interim basis and previously was vice president- as one more milestone in female representation at the top positions of the Portuguese Judicial Power “:” This house thus becomes an important space to bear witness to this equality. “He added that the justice organization” has been witnessing “the expansion of representation, which” is already a majority in the first instance and has begun to translate in higher courts ”.
