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Child Abuse Verdict Held Back By MS Word Glitch
An anonymous reader writes "Last week several defendants including one high-profile TV presenter were sentenced in Portugal in what has been known as the Casa Pia scandal. The judges delivered on September 3 a summary of the 2000-page verdict, which would be disclosed in full only three days later. The disclosure of the full verdict has been postponed from September 8 to a yet-to-be-announced date, allegedly because the full document was written in several MS Word files which, when merged together, retained 'computer related annotations which should not be present in any legal document.' (Google translated article.) Microsoft specialists were called in to help the judges sort out the 'text formatting glitch,' while the defendants and their lawyers eagerly wait to access the full text of the verdict."
So it's Microsoft's fault that people can't use the software?
The trial took 6 years. This glitch is only taking a few days, "should" be sorted out by Monday. BTW, they're appealing the decision, so possibly they'll get way with no time in prison. On the other hand, the sentences are like 6/7 years for 3/4 counts of child abuse (that equates to less than 2 years per count). Since our penal code has been "conveniently" changed by the socialists in government (which, coincidently, had a former big-shot minister implicated in the case), if convicted they are only required to serve 1/4 of the sentence (by then, they can ask the prison director to spend the rest at home). That's how we handle pedophiles in Portugal...