A sledgehammer to the rule of law

The recent searches carried out at Praia City Hall (CMP) by the Public Prosecutor's Office raise serious, legitimate and disturbing questions about the limits of the actions of the judicial authorities in a democratic state governed by the rule of law.

According to information made public, the search warrant issued in the context of the case in question referred to the CMP's Finance and Assets Department, located in Fazenda. Even so, the police intervention extended to the Town Hall, involving the breaking down of the main gate and the window of the mayor's bathroom, using force, sledgehammers and a police apparatus worthy of operations against highly dangerous criminal organizations.

This is extremely serious.

In the rule of law, the legality of the means is as important as the ends. The absence of a judicial warrant authorizing searches in the Town Hall - an institutional, symbolic and politically sensitive space - makes the action manifestly disproportionate and potentially illegal. Any evidence gathered in these circumstances runs the serious risk of being considered null and void, as it was obtained in a scandalously irregular manner.

More serious still is the precedent that is being set: allowing the Public Prosecutor's Office to raid the premises of local authorities without a specific court order is to grant it a freedom of action that is incompatible with the constitutional principles of legality, proportionality and the judge's reserve.

The scenario becomes even more disturbing when you realize that the CMP had already been the target of previous searches, also conducted by the same prosecutor. The repetition, combined with the ostentatious and intimidating nature of the operation, feeds the perception - fair or unfair, but politically real - that there is an objective that goes beyond the criminal investigation: the political erosion of the mayor, Francisco Carvalho, a potential candidate for prime minister in the next legislative elections.

In a small country like Cape Verde, the justice system cannot ignore the symbolic and political impact of its actions. A police apparatus with weapons of war, treating a municipality as if it were a criminal association, is not neutral. It intimidates, conditions and pre-condemns in the public space before any trial.

Also reprehensible was the decision to close essential municipal services - kindergartens, sanitation, the market - with citizens inside. The deprivation of liberty, when not determined by a competent authority and outside the strict terms of the law, is illogical. It cannot be relativized or justified by excesses of investigative zeal.

But I have to admit that much more serious was the action that triggered it: a violent invasion by the Public Prosecutor's Office, using sledgehammers and weapons of war, of the municipality's headquarters in Plateau without a search warrant, without the approval of any judge. Completely outside the law. This disproportionality aggravates the whole scenario, even if there is a compelling interest to access documents or whatever else as evidence of crimes. Without a warrant, the MP overtook on the right on a two-way road.

All this takes place in a context in which the Attorney General's Office has already been criticized for creative interpretations of the law, as in the case that brought MP Amadeu Oliveira to trial. The feeling that the law is molded according to the targets - and not applied uniformly - dangerously weakens citizens' trust in justice.

Particularly perplexing is the public support of the magistrates' union for an action that, at the very least, should merit prudence and reserve. To defend the breaking and entering of municipal facilities without judicial backing is to align oneself with an institutional spectacle that does nothing to dignify the judiciary.

The heated speeches that followed on social media and in the public arena are, to a large extent, proportional to the seriousness of the events that triggered them. Even so, restraint is required. Institutions are bigger than their transient leaders. They must be preserved, not instrumentalized.

Defending the rule of law does not mean confronting sovereign bodies. On the contrary: it means demanding that they act within the limits imposed on them by the Constitution. Democracy is not consolidated with battering rams, sledgehammers and intimidation, but with legality, proportionality and respect for fundamental rights.

This is not about anyone's immunity from criminal investigation. It's something much more serious: whether we want a strong Public Prosecutor's Office, yes, but one that is constitutionally restrained - or a power with no brakes, capable of doing "whatever it likes". That's the real trial Cape Verde is facing.

Article taken from Santiagomagazine