The two Portuguese judges whose 34-page ruling over a case of illegal confinement of German tourists in the Azores created ‘ructions’ for authorities’ ‘official narrative’ will not be ‘disciplined’ by their regulatory body.
This is the news protestors outside the Superior Council of Magistrature (CSM) in Lisbon yesterday were hoping for.
But it didn’t come without a chink of peeve.
A statement released by the CSM stressed that the ‘majority decision’ (in other words, not unanimous) could not help but recognise that the ruling held “some unnecessary excess… susceptible to create controversy in the current context”.
It may have been a ‘warning shot across the bows’ for any other litigators called on to decide ‘matters relating to the handling of the pandemic’. Or it may have been a sign that ultimately the separation of powers must indeed transcend any official narrative and leave judges free to come to informed decisions.
However it is taken, it is good news for appeal court litigators Margarida Ramos de Almeida and Ana Paramés whose ruling has been hailed as ‘brilliant and courageous’ by all those who took time out of their lives yesterday to demonstrate in Lisbon.
