Marcelo asks for “maximum rigor” and the union wants Gago’s replacement from the MP | Justice

Adão Carvalho, president of the Union of Public Prosecutors (SMMP) has just given a warning to navigation regarding the choice of the next Attorney General of the Republic (PGR). At the XIII Congress of the SMMP, which ended this Saturday in the Azores, the leader, who also said that he would not re-apply for the position, argued that Lucília Gago’s successor should be a magistrate from the Public Ministry (MP).

The current Attorney General of the Republic ends her term in October. “We recommend, for the sake of the rule of law, in these times of enormous pressure and criticism regarding ongoing investigations, with protagonists and political leaders expressing a clear desire to conform the actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to a type of political tutelage, which this process takes place in the most transparent way possible”, began by saying the union leader, highlighting that, “with the publicity of the reasons for the choice, with knowledge of the project that the chosen one has for the MP, and with respect for the recommendations at the level of the Council of Europe that this function, whatever the MP system, must fall to magistrates from the Public Ministry itself, for the sake of the independence and autonomy of this magistracy, as it guarantees the independence of the judicial system itself”.

This is despite the law saying that the choice for the position is not linked to any area of ​​recruitment or even special training requirements.

Then, in relation to the topics that were debated at the congress, Adão Carvalho highlighted some ideas, namely “that the Public Ministry has a role of proximity and facilitating access to the courts, characterized as an “open door” judiciary and “ground floor”, where the citizen can enter, speak and be heard and the neglect of this core aspect and its reduction to the exercise of criminal action could jeopardize the conception of the Public Ministry as a judiciary”.

Furthermore, the president of the SMMP stressed that, “contrary to the wishes of some who want to take the Public Ministry into wars and wars, in the MP and the Judiciary Police, between the MP and the judges, there is between this judiciary and the bodies of criminal police, the Judiciary Police, but also the PSP, the GNR, the Tax Authority (AT), etc., a relationship of close collaboration with a common purpose – the achievement of better criminal justice”.

However, Adão Carvalho highlighted that, “to this end, it is important that the MP assumes the effective direction of the investigation, taking the initiative so that this close collaboration occurs in all investigations”. “However, a possible regulation of the functioning of research teams should be considered, taking into account the lack of culture and training for teamwork, as there is still a long way to go in this area”, he maintained.

Regarding “criminal investigation activity”, the union leader highlighted the idea that “technological tools are now available with a view to developing faster and more effective work, such as artificial intelligence applications that assist in the analysis of evidence, the AIDA project and the practical guide to justice”.

However, it was concluded, according to the union leader, that “in order to have artificial intelligence applications in the courts, there will have to be more training, autonomy and financial capacity to manage the data that makes them work, as it is unknown how the data is processed and indexed.”

President warns of “community perception of actions”

The President of the Republic, who was invited to the congress but decided not to go due to the pre-election period, still sent a written message in which he appealed to Public Prosecutor’s Office magistrates to reflect on the new challenges facing the judicial system. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa draws attention to the “accelerating time and its repercussions on the justice system itself” and, consequently, for “the structures, procedures and course options that best combine maximum rigor with maximum readiness for results”.

The head of state also urges prosecutors not to give up on “constant sensitivity to the community’s perception of institutions and actions” and ends the message with a warning to avoid the “politicization” of the judiciary and the “judicialization” of the remaining state powers.

Marcelo’s warnings are not dissociated from the strong public criticism that the Public Ministry has been the target of in recent months, due to what some political leaders consider to have been an excess of means used in the searches in Madeira and a lack of consistency in the conduct of the Operation Influencerwhich led to the fall of the Government.

with João Pedro Pincha