Unofficial lawyers will be able to receive before the proceedings are over

A minister of Justice announced today in Parliament that he has already signed the ordinance that will allow interim payments to the unofficial lawyers, preventing them from having to wait in long-term proceedings for their end to be paid.

At the parliamentary hearing of discussion in the specialty of the next State Budget, Rita Alarcão Júdice said that in the system of access to law the executive intends “to ensure greater predictability in payments, with the aim of an average period of 30 days after receiving and confirming the services by the courts”, as well as introducing new guarantees for unofficial lawyers with long proceedings.

“ We also want to respond to a long-standing difficulty felt by those who provide legal aid in long-term cases in which they must wait for the end of the process to be paid for the work they have done. We will now allow interim payments in these processes. I signed the Ordinance that regulates this matter today,” the minister said.

The governor also advanced at the hearing that the payment table to the unofficial lawyers will also include acts that were not foreseen until now.

The hearing was also marked by an intervention by Socialist MEP Isabel Moreira, who classified as “one of the most serious statements made by this Government” the statement on Tuesday by the Secretary of State for Internal Administration and Immigration.

Rui Armindo Freitas, in parliament, warned that those who participate in demonstrations for the right to housing and do not respect the law of foreigners may have their residence permits cancelled, “not because they manifest themselves”, but because they may “put public order in question”.

Isabel Moreira stressed the criticisms that brought together lawyers and technicians from the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), considered the statement “politically and democratically intolerable”.

Considering that it is not only an “unfortunate declaration”, but rather an “authoritarian conception of power”, she asked the Minister of Justice to clarify that the constitutional right to demonstration does not distinguish between Portuguese and foreigners and that expulsion orders can only be given by a judge.

João Almeida, of the CDS-PP, reacted to the speech of the MP saying that the Secretary of State, when he made the statements, made it clear that there would be no automatic expulsion orders.

The minister would only end up repeating the principle stated by Isabel Moreira, that ministers and state secretaries cannot expel foreigners from the country and that this decision is for a judge.

Asked about the installation of cell phone and drone signal inhibitors in prisons and the fact that this equipment still exists only in Jewish Valley without functioning, Rita Alarcão Judice replied that the extension to all prisons represents “a very large investment”.

“It’s very expensive. I am not going to replicate this system without being sure it works,” the minister said, saying that the tests in the Jewish Valley are going well and expects to have news soon.

Also on the prison system, the minister reaffirmed her intention to close the Lisbon Prison Institution (EPL) by 2028, as planned, and to close the prison ward. And already this year, when you said you wanted to participate.

“ In 2027 I believe we were able to close a second wing. The big challenge is to accelerate the others. I will continue to fight for closure in 2028, if I slip into the first quarter of 2029 it will not harm the world. For me it is a commitment of honour and political to be able to close the EPL in this legislature,” he said.

On the construction of new prisons, the minister said that the Ministry of Justice will have a plan, even if it is no longer this government and this legislature to implement it, but that it will necessarily oblige another type of approach, with the use of existing prisons and building a logic of concentration, that is, less establishments, but larger, with capacity for more inmates.

In response to the PCP Member Paula Santos, the minister also refused to open an extraordinary course for the training of prosecutors' magistrates, as the Public Ministry (MP) intends, for reasons of equality, since responding to this request would imply accepting a short course, which would also call into question the quality of the training required and provided.

He also stressed that in the last training courses of the Center for Judiciary Studies (CEJ) the MP was privileged, and practically doubled the number of vacancies for future prosecutors.