A Portuguese worker in Luxembourg was called to testify as a witness to a traffic accident.
Pedro Miguel Dias Fernandes, originally from Vila Verde, Braga, went to the Portuguese Consulate in Luxembourg to fulfil his duty as a citizen but was told he could not testify as there was “no Skype available" to link him to the court in Braga.
The court letter that Fernandes had received threatened fines and coercive collection if he did not appear as a witness so he took time off work and travelled to Paris to testify by video-link at the Portuguese Embassy.
Fernades was told at the Embassy that there were no technical means for him to testify and anyway, as he did not live in France the Embassy would not have let him use its equipment anyway, even if it had any, which staff said it didn’t.
However, two other witnesses in the same case who also lived in France were able to give their testimony via a video-link from the same Embassy in Paris.
Fernandes’ lawyer said that despite appeals by his client to use the video-link, the Embassy staff were adamant that anyone not registered in France cannot use the service of the Embassy.
Sr Fernandes had travelled 600 kilometres from Luxembourg to Paris at his own expense and then had to fly to Portugal, again at his own expense costing about €1,000.
"I lost two days of work. Who will pay for that?" asked the emigrant when he eventually made it to the Braga court to give his testimony.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that Portugal’s Consulates do not have Skype links set up but that "there is nothing to prohibit a Portuguese citizen from being helped at a consular post in any country."
In December last year an expat resident in the Algarve was called as a video-link witness. Before flying back to Portugal from her family Christmas holiday, she phoned the court to confirm the date she has been given in the letter which varied to the court date she had been advised by the plaintiff.
Assured the date was as per the letter, which threatened fines for non-cooperation, she flew from Demark back to Faro at a round trip cost of €1,200 and presented herself at the designated court only to be told the court date was the one she originally had been advised and "to come back in two months."
Questions as to why the letter had the wrong date and who would pay for the ticket were met with indifference and she realised why few want to be witnesses in Portugal which in many countries is seen as a civic duty.
