The Constitutional Court (TC) ruled unconstitutional the confinements or quarantines imposed without a state of emergency having been decreed, in a June 24 ruling reported this Wednesday by the newspaper “Público”.
The Ratton Palace judges argue that confinements represent a deprivation of liberty and are not admissible outside periods in which a state of emergency has been declared.
Listened to by “Público”, the constitutionalist Vitalino Canas claimed that the draft bill that the government is preparing of the law of emergency health “is wounded to death” with this decision of the Constitutional Court.
Read also: Covid-19: Macao resident sentenced to probation for violating partial confinement
The President of the Republic announced in May that even if he has no strong doubts about the constitutionality of the future law, he will send it to the Constitutional Court to be subjected to preventive review, that is, to be checked for compliance with the fundamental law before it comes into force. “I’m telling you now what I intend to do with the law, which is, when I get my hands on it, to evaluate it and send it to the Constitutional Court under preventive review, for a preventive reason,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told reporters, claiming he feared that “there will begin to be appeals or challenges from various citizens in various courts.”
