The PAN and Chega parties defended this Wednesday in Parliament bills to extend the statute of limitations for certain economic and financial crimes, and the PS and PSD responded that such deadlines have already been duly extended with the approval of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
In the plenary session of the Assembly of the Republic, a PAN bill was debated to increase the statute of limitations for crimes of falsification of documents and fiscal crimeswhich provides for new grounds to suspend or interrupt the computation of the statute of limitations for criminal proceedings, as well as a Chega document to modify the statute of limitations for sexual crimes against minors and a set of crimes related to corruption.
A public petition was also analyzed requesting the promotion of a legislative reform to establish the prescription of the crimes of active and passive corruption, money laundering, document falsification, computer crimes and tax fraud and evasion.
The debate began with Inês Sousa Real (PAN) considering that, despite the approval of the Anti-Corruption Strategy, the statute of limitations for certain crimes “is still insufficient”steal thousands of euros” to the public purse, such as document falsification and tax fraud.
The deputy warned about the ease with which “delaying actions” delay criminal proceedings and defended the need to “combat more seriously and effectively the scourge of corruption” which, she said, “attempts against democracy.”
André Ventura (Chega) argued, for his part, that the “the statutes of limitations are expiredand justified that the graduate of his party intends to “increase the maximum limits of prescription” so that there is more time for the most complex processes and that cause greater damage.
The leader of Chega emphasized that “the most legally advanced” do not have a prescription and regarding sexual crimes he stated: “For me, a pedophile can be persecuted forever.????????
Claudia Santos (PS) criticized that the PAN and Chega bills “address problems that no longer exist” since the legislative changes introduced by the Anti-Corruption Package, pointing out that what is needed is “more efficient criminal justice” and not investigations than the last 15 years in which the “freshness of the evidence” and the “material truth” are lost.
Mónica Quintela (PSD) also understands that “there is no margin to lengthen prescription terms that are intolerable”, giving practical examples of how the current law has already contemplated situations in which these terms can reach 15, 45 years and a half, no limit , 60 years.
According to the Social Democratic deputy, the crimes under analysis must be “tried in the shortest possible time”, instead of promoting the “inertia of justice”, granting even longer terms than those that already exist in the law. Hence, he stressed, that the PSD is in favor of fighting “slowness of justice????????
Patrícia Gil Vaz (IL), Joana Mortágua (BE), Alma Rivera (PCP) and Rui Tavares (Livre) also mentioned in their interventions that the mere extension of the limitation periods does not solve the problem of criminal justice in relation to the white collar crimes. , expressing the agreement of all on the need to provide the Judicial Police, the Public Ministry and the courts with the necessary human and material resources so that justice obtains greater efficiency in criminal investigation.
Alma Rivera also referred to the need for greater international judicial cooperation in the fight against corruption and related crimes, linked to offshore companies, taking the opportunity to criticize the “Golden Visas” policy.
Joana Mortágua admitted that the statute of limitations for sexual crimes should be considered, but warned that extending the deadlines alone would not “solve the problem of ineffective justice” and the fight against corruption.
Source: Observadora
