Portuguese judge overturns isolation requirement for family coming from Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A court of Sintra, Portugal, granted a habeas corpus petition from an attorney who was forced by health authorities to remain 14 days in prophylactic isolation at home when she returned from Brazil.

A statement from the Portuguese Bar Association says the attorney, her husband and an infant daughter entered Portugal from Brazil on May 2nd, and despite testing negative for Covid-19 and “having been allowed to enter the country without any restrictions,” the Health Delegate in their area of residence imposed a 14-day isolation period.

The attorney challenged the measure, through a habeas corpus petition contesting the Council of Ministers’ resolution No. 45-C/2021, dated April 30th; the petition was granted on Friday, May 7th, by the Court of Sintra.

The judge ruled the Council of Ministers’ resolution on the calamity situation unconstitutional and immediately banned health authorities from placing the attorney and her relatives under forced isolation, considering that this would only be possible if the state of emergency were in force.

In the decision the magistrate ruled the resolution’s Article 25 “materially and organically unconstitutional” in the sense that “any national or foreign citizen” can “be deprived of liberty for a period of 14 days by administrative order and without judicial control.”

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government replaced the state of emergency with a situation of calamity throughout the country, in effect since May 1st.

Source: Poder360