408 young people were released under the VYD amnesty law

The application of the law on amnesty and pardon of sentences, approved as part of World Youth Day (WYD), has already led to the release of 408 young people since September 1, the High Council of the Judiciary (SCJ) said on Monday.

In the information sent to Lusa, CSM specified that the region where the largest number of releases was registered was Lisbon (65), followed by Porto (64), Western Lisbon (35), Azores (32), Aveiro (29), Braga. and Leiria (23), Faro (21) and Santarém (20) as the counties with the highest number of people released.

There were also 16 editions in the Northern Lisbon region, 13 in Setúbal, 11 in Coimbra, 10 in Madeira and Porto Este, 9 in Viseu, 7 in Guarda, 6 in Vila Real, 4 in Viana do Castelo and Portalegre and 3 in Évora and Beja.

Conversely, the districts of Bragança and Castelo Branco were the only ones where people had not yet benefited from the application of the law on amnesty and pardon of sentences.

According to the SCM, there are some residual situations in which convicts remain in prison because they have other pending cases with prison sentences to be served and which are not covered by the amnesty.

While not yet having specific data on the number of prisoners eligible for amnesty in terms of commutation of sentences or pardon of fines, the SCM also noted that the processes are still under evaluation due to the possible need to carry out a new legal cumulation when they are the cause of several crimes .

“There are processes that continue to be analyzed, namely more complex situations in which it is necessary to collect information from various processes and courts, to understand whether there is a consistent execution of sentences or the need to reformulate individual sentences, in situations where some of the sentences are amnestied, with the possible considering the possibility of changing the wording of the legal set of sentences,” he concluded.

The amnesty law, which came into force on September 1, covers crimes and offenses committed before June 19 by young people aged 16 to 30, providing a one-year pardon for all sentences of up to eight years in prison.

The amnesty regime is also provided for administrative offenses with a maximum fine of up to 1,000 euros and criminal offenses for which the punishment does not exceed one year in prison or a 120-day fine.

The law includes exceptions that do not benefit, in particular, persons who have committed crimes such as murder, infanticide, domestic violence, cruelty, infliction of grievous physical harm, female genital mutilation, qualified physical harm, forced marriage, kidnapping, against sexual freedom and self-determination, extortion, discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence, influence peddling, money laundering or corruption.