The Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) expressed its “greatest reservations” about the constitutionality of the age limit for the application of pardons and amnesties for crimes and offenses in connection with the Pope’s visit to Portugal.
According to an opinion sent to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, taking into account the proposal of the government in connection with the celebration of World Youth Day (WYD), the governing and disciplinary body of judges indicated that the application of amnesty to young people aged 16 to 30 years, who committed crimes and offenses provided for before June 19, “this is (positive) discrimination on the basis of age, which is not properly justified.”
“Differentiating the treatment of perpetrators of identical offenses solely on the basis of their age at the time of their commission, even if confirmed by the age group of the main recipients of the event, raises the most reservations as to its constitutional conformity,” one can read in the document, which emphasizes that working time “is not a constitutional value that justifies discrimination against people.”
The bill, which will be debated in Parliament this Tuesday, calls for a one-year pardon for all sentences up to eight years in prison. The amnesty regime is also provided for offenses with a maximum applicable fine of up to 1,000 euros and criminal offenses for which the penalty does not exceed one year’s imprisonment or 120 days’ fine.
Despite recognizing the freedom of political options for the development of a diploma, the SCM recalled that this discretion “is not unlimited” and that it must respect the principles stipulated by the constitution.
“We may face a situation of discrimination based on age without any objective grounds, which is unlikely to pass the test of the principle of equality enshrined in Article 13 of the Constitution,” the body said.
Apart from the age criterion in the amnesty, the legitimacy of which has already been questioned by the constitutionalists, the High Council of the State Ministry and the Portuguese Association for the Support of Prisoners, the SCM also felt that other aspects of the proposed law should be “improved”.
Target norms include, for example, the absence of the crime of drug trafficking with aggravating circumstances in the description of crimes excluded from the scope of the amnesty.
The SCM also warned of the risk of “serious problems and embarrassments causing serious restrictions on the work of the courts” due to the need to reformulate the legal combination of punishments when there are offenses subject to amnesty and others that are excluded from the scope of this diploma.
“A decision in law will cause huge problems in judicial practice,” the SCM warns, believing that “it will require hundreds or thousands of cumulative hearings to reformulate legal combinations in the middle of the trial.” judicial vacation period.
The proposed law includes exceptions to pardons and amnesties that do not benefit those who have committed crimes such as murder, infanticide, domestic violence, abuse, serious violation of physical integrity, female genital mutilation, violation of skilled physical immunity, forced marriage, kidnapping. , against sexual freedom and self-determination, extortion, discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence, trading in influence, money laundering or corruption.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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