This Thursday, the Council of Ministers approved the proposal to submit to the Assembly of the Republic a bill on the criminal regime applicable to crimes against the physical integrity of members of the security forces and services.
According to the note of the Council of Ministers, “the diploma represents a crime related to causing harm to the physical integrity of a law enforcement or security service employee in the performance of their functions or through their fault, in simple, qualified and privileged forms, defining the appropriate criminal framework and aggravating consequences.”
The urgency of consideration of cases of crimes against life and physical integrity committed against or by representatives of law enforcement agencies and services has also been determined, the document says.
On Wednesday, at a ceremony in Porto, the Minister of the Interior already announced that the proposed law will be approved at a meeting of the Council of Ministers this Thursday.
“This is a proposal (…) that will tighten the conditions for punishing those who attack the security forces,” José Luis Carneiro told reporters after the inauguration of the new PSP Porto commander.
A government official said it was a “very clear sign” that attacks on security forces “will not be tolerated from a rule of law perspective.”
He said the rule aims to prioritize trials for these types of crimes, speed them up and increase sentences from three to four years.
José Luis Carneiro noted that when police forces exercise their powers “disproportionately”, the Ministry of the Interior “effectively demands” the immediate initiation of an investigation procedure to determine responsibility in accordance with the conditions in which these powers were exercised.
“If it is true that citizens (and rightly so) do not recognize the arbitrariness of power, we also cannot accept, as citizens, that the police are the object of neglect, disrespect and aggression, as they are,” he concluded.