Courts have been at a standstill across the country since early this morning due to a failure in the Citius computer system, the Judicial Employees Union (SFJ) told Lusa, in information confirmed by the government.
“We’ve tried to talk to the IGFEJ [Institute for Financial Management and Justice Equipment] and we’re getting no response from them. It’s a central problem. It’s happening from north to south and everything is at a standstill. Everyone says they’ve been off work since they came in,” the SFJ’s Lisbon regional secretary, Regina Soares, told Lusa.
In the meantime, the SFJ leader stressed that the computer problem is already causing trials and proceedings to be postponed.
“There have already been many postponements. In the Sintra Criminal Investigation, everything has already been postponed, in the Almada Central Criminal Court there have also been postponements and in the Lisbon Local Criminal Court there have been at least five postponements,” he noted.
The Union of Judicial Officers (SOJ) also acknowledged the stoppage of activity this morning due to the computer glitch, after the first two days after the end of the judicial vacation had already been constrained in the courts due to the strikes by judicial staff.
“Everything has been at a standstill since morning. I had said that justice in Portugal was suspended because of the strike and the Ministry of Justice has confirmed this. This isn’t the result of the workers’ actions, it’s the result of the government, which, by not investing, is allowing this to happen,” said SOJ president Carlos Almeida, who also called on the Council of State to pronounce itself on the state of the sector: “Justice in Portugal is suspended.”
The information on the computer failure was also provided by the Ministry of Justice, which, in a statement sent to Lusa, said that “there are communication problems affecting the justice systems”, but assured that “the technological teams are working on resolving the problem”.
“It was an interruption in an external circuit, which is being resolved,” added an official source from the Ministry of Justice.
