02/24/2024 – 11:43
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Updated: 02/24/2024 – 11:59
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A strong blow to the Socialist Workers' Party's claim to be strong in not including crimes called “terrorism” in the amnesty law. Report published today by Venice CommissionThe Council of Europe body responsible for judicial standards indicates that only Brazil and Kyrgyzstan exclude terrorism from amnesties.
The report studies legislation or practices in fifty-six countries around the world, especially European countries, and analyzes what limits are set in each case when amnesty is enacted. The result is that only Brazil and Kyrgyzstan exclude cases of terrorism.
In Brazil specifically, the amnesty issued in August 1979 excluded those convicted of crimes of “terrorism, assault, kidnapping, or personal attacks.” But we must take into account that this amnesty law – like the Spanish law of the same year – was designed to save supporters of the dictatorship from possible future persecution for their crimes. General João Figueiredo passed the law and had the support of the army.
In Kyrgyzstan, a law enacted in 2017 did not apply to those convicted of “torture, child rape, or terrorism.”
It is worth noting that, contrary to what the Socialist Workers Party proposes, the Brazilian and Kyrgyz laws refer to those who had already been convicted at the time of the amnesty. The Socialist Workers' Party proposes that the accused be excluded, even if they have not yet been tried.
It is also interesting to note that the report, when it refers to the Spanish case, does not talk about any exclusion and makes it clear that there is no formal regulation of amnesty in the Spanish state, unlike what happens in the majority of countries.
In Europe, the vast majority of countries (such as Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, French State, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta) (Moldova , Monaco, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Cyprus) Amnesty is clearly regulated, in the constitution, or in specific laws.
Many of these countries include exceptions to the amnesty law, but in no way do they include so-called terrorism. The vast majority of them only provide for cases that international law defines as crimes against humanity, and each state then determines what behavior cannot be pardoned, according to its own legal tradition – for example, in Portugal perpetrators of murder are excluded, and in Iceland they cannot be pardoned. . It is requested in cases where a prison sentence has already been served or in Cyprus, amnesty is not allowed for sexual crimes.
The publication of this comparison comes at a very unique moment, because a few days ago a delegation from the Venice Commission visited Madrid, at the request of the Attorney General, to study the proposed amnesty law, and is expected to issue a ruling soon.
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