Port. Lawyer finds “strange” that process is in secret

Um of the lawyers of the six people arrested in Porto for protesting for the right to housing, in the early hours of October 25, today considered “strange and wrong” that the process is in secret of justice.

“ What I can say is that this process has its strange characteristics, the secret of justice in a case like this should not have been applied,” said Ricardo Salazar to journalists outside the Local Criminal Court in Porto.

The six protesters, student workers and the first job, attended the Local Criminal Court today to comment on the provisional suspension of the procedure.

“ This case is a secret of justice and I can't talk about this process. Even if they asked me if the process went to common process I could not answer ", pointed Ricardo Salazar.

Despite the insistence of journalists on what was decided, the causist insisted that he cannot talk about the process, highlighting only that it will have “other chapters”.

“ We will have other developments that go through, eventually, on Friday [the day on which the protesters’ trial was scheduled] not to be here, I have other things scheduled, however other things fell and we will have to wait for what might happen”, he said.

Judicial source told Lusa that the Public Prosecutor (MP) referred the case to inquiry, which is in secret of justice, which makes the trial, which was scheduled to start on Friday, not to take place.

On the imposition of the secret of justice, Ricardo Salazar understood that it was “necessary” and that it is a way to “snake” lawyers, defendants and journalists.

“ In such an important and constitutionally relevant process we do not understand how the secret of justice was decreed. Because gag me, gag you [journalists] and gag the defendants who want to defend themselves and explain what happened, and this is not good for anyone in a democratic rule of law”, he stressed.

In his opinion, these protesters for the right to housing are the “heroes of today” because they are fighting for a “worthy and just” cause and were therefore the target of a police charge.

“ These people in the future, whatever the outcome may be, are people who together with all the others who have been arrested will play an important role in our society. Why? Because they did what was right to fight for their ideals,” he said.

The housing camps, a movement that began in Porto on October 10, mark today a month, during which they managed to force a public debate on the crisis in the country with social and political consequences.