“No one will shut me up”, warns Luís Neves
PJ director Luís Neves has been made the target of a disciplinary action by the country’s Ordem dos Advogados (lawyers’ official body) for comments he made in a media interview.
The crime fighter accused the legal profession of “judicial terrorism” in the way it manages to drag legal cases – particularly those to do with economic crime – through the courts to the point that it is commonly accepted wealthy clients who may indeed be guilty are more likely to die in the comfort of their own beds before any judgement is reached in the courts.
The Ordem however clearly did not warm to seeing its expertise likened to a form of terrorism, hence the disciplinary complaint presented.
Luís Neves however is unrattled. He says he is used to dealing with “the most violent crime”. He is “not afraid of cases”. In fact, in this instance, he clearly believes criticism is due.
He says the ‘sloth of Justice’ is one of the greatest concerns of the country. A common case of criminality is generally dealt with in the space of around 383 days, he told Observador, while economic-financial crimes are regularly eked out for a decade, often longer, due to lawyers lodging appeal after appeal “and procedural incidences that slow down the proceedings”.
“I have worked 23 and a half years in the area of violent crime, I have dealt with very tough and courageous decisions to save lives, I have been in highly dangerous operational situations (…) and it isn’t now that a situation like this will cause me qualms, because I have the obligation, age and status to be allowed to agitate the waters,” he said.
