The Justice Minister said on Tuesday that a proposal to amend the child sexual abuse law would be submitted in the first half of this year to deny any causal link to the Catholic Church-related controversy.
Asked by Lusa about a proposal put forward by the Portuguese Catholic Church’s Independent Commission for the Study of Sexual Abuse of Children to extend the statute of limitations for crimes of sexual abuse to the age of 30, Catarina Sarmento i Castro said that an amendment to the legislation “is already under consideration and “works” in the government.
“We don’t have to legislate for a specific case. I would like to emphasize this. Work is underway on this legislative change, ”the minister insisted, indicating that the proposal of the Ministry of Justice goes in the direction of“ not changing the limitation period, but changing the date from which the countdown of these periods begins, ”without providing additional information.
The Minister acknowledged that if the proposal of the Ministry of Justice on this legislative change is the subject of “discussion at the government level”, then “for sure” the proposal will appear “before the middle of this year.”
“We are working on it. The proposal has been developed. It is about entering the legislative circle,” he said, hinting at the approval process that would have to go through the Assembly of the Republic.
In a written response to Luce, the Ministry of Justice has already acknowledged that “taking into account the legal plan adopted at the EU level, it is necessary to make some adjustments to the current domestic legislation in order to respond to the European Commission Directives on Combating Sexual Abuse, Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography.”
“At the moment, a set of legislative improvements is already underway, which will strengthen the domestic legal framework and strengthen the protection of victims of this type of crime,” he adds.
The Independent Commission has identified 4,815 victims since it took office in January 2022. This commission, which is coordinated by Pedro Strecht, sent 25 cases to the State Ministry.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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