PSD/CDS, Chega and IL approved this Tuesday, in a final global vote, an amendment to the Penal Code in which it is possible for a judge to apply as an accessory penalty, for serious crimes, the loss of nationality.
Initially, the sanction of loss of nationality for serious crimes was part of the Government’s proposal to revise the nationality law, but PSD and CDS later decided to make it autonomous to prevent the risks of unconstitutionality inherent in these changes from reaching every legislative initiative of the executive.
The parliamentary left voted against, and the PS has already signaled that the sanction of loss of nationality could represent a violation of constitutional principles.
As in the revision of the nationality law, this proposal also had 157 votes in favour and 64 against, reaching two-thirds approval, when it only needed an absolute majority of 116 of the 230 deputies.
According to the final version of the proposal now approved, a judge can apply the penalty of loss of Portuguese nationality “to anyone who has been sentenced to an effective prison sentence of a duration equal to or greater than four years.”
This penalty may be applied if the acts are “committed within ten years of the acquisition of nationality and if the agent is a national of another State, which immediately excludes the possibility of a citizen becoming stateless as a result of the penalty.
In the latest version of the specialty process, in the Constitutional Affairs Committee, it also provides that “whoever is convicted of losing nationality as an accessory penalty for the commission of the aforementioned crimes (..) can only request its reacquisition, under the general terms defined in the Nationality Law, ten years after the expiry of the period for definitive cancellation of the registration in the criminal record of the respective penalties.” A change that the PS considered a concession by the PSD to Chega.
Chega, on the other hand, wanted the loss of nationality to extend for a period of 20 years – not ten – and that it be automatic, and not an accessory sentence decreed by a judge.
This is interesting, as a police officer was assaulted in Ribeira Brava over the weekend while he tried to break up a fight. The aggressor has been let off to a greater extent, causing much consternation within the Madeiran community.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
