“ANDIn both instances, the municipality saw its appeal rejected (the merits of it were not analyzed), so the municipality will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights”, states the municipality in a note published on its official Facebook page .
The Chamber of Idanha-a-Nova, in the district of Castelo Branco, justifies the decision by “understanding that any legal system (in a Democratic State of Law) must provide its citizens with access to an appeal body and the right to adversarial proceedings in moment before decisions are made”.
To the Lusa agency, the mayor of Idanha-a-Nova, Armindo Jacinto, confirmed that the municipality will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights “because the Portuguese courts did not even analyze the appeal [Supremo Tribunal de Justiça e o Tribunal Constitucional]”.
“In the first instance we won and in the second instance, it [Cristina Rodrigues] it won. We understand that there must be a third instance to comment”, she highlighted.
In a ruling dated May 2, 2023, the Court of Appeal of Coimbra (TRC) revoked the decision of the Civil Court of Castelo Branco and admitted the conversion of execution to delivery of a certain thing in execution for payment of a certain amount.
At issue is a court decision that ordered the municipality to return seven works of art to the author, as well as to pay her the amount of five thousand euros, as compensation for non-material damages.
The artist requested that the execution for the delivery of the certain amount be converted into an execution for the payment of 333,142 euros, as this was the value of the works of art that should have been delivered to her.
Armindo Jacinto confirmed that an amount of around 450,000 euros has been seized to guarantee the outstanding amount, to which the Chamber has already objected.
“We were taking action to oppose the seizure of the money [450 mil euros] of the money from an Idanha-a-Nova City Council account and we offered as a guarantee, the seizure of goods, which are paintings that we bought from Cristina Rodrigues. We want to replace money with material goods,” she stressed.
This opposition was filed with the competent court on April 19, as the municipality believes “the captivation of public values is not legal, in the manner in which it was done”.
In a statement sent to the Lusa agency, the Movimento para Todos (MPT) accuses the president of the municipality of playing the victim in this entire process.
“Each time the process takes place in Court, we see statements and communications from the President of the Chamber, in a manner of victimization and with the speech indicating that he is being the target of a vicar’s tale”, they say.
They add that all the resources and communications “have been made on the Mayor’s own initiative, claiming to be in the name of the municipality, but not bringing the matter to the attention of the councillors”.
“It is certain that the various instances of justice have ruled in favor of Cristina Rodrigues. In this way, clear and objective questions are raised, namely: What was the crime committed by the municipality, which led to this conviction? Who, from part of the municipality, will have contributed to this condemnation of the ‘immaterial institution’ that is the municipality”, questions the MPT.
Contacted by the Lusa agency, artist Cristina Rodrigues said that during all these years she has never spoken out about this process and will not do so.
“I am not going to comment now on a subject that, for me, is closed”, he concluded.
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