The Ombudsman requested the Constitutional Court to declare unconstitutional some amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure introduced by Law No 34/2026, according to the Ombudsman.
© Lusa
19/10/2026
by
Lusa
A ombudsman today requested the Constitutional Court to “declare unconstitutional, with general mandatory force”, some amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CPP) introduced by Law No 34/2026, the Ombudsman informed.
In a statement, the provider Luísa Neto states that since taking office on July 15, she has received “complaints and concerns from citizens regarding the solutions contained” in the said law of July 27, and at her request, she heard the bastonary of the Bar Association on the same issue, having also examined the amendments and concluded “that it is justified to proceed with a request for successive abstract review of constitutionality to the Constitutional Court”.
According to the provider, in five of the amendments the guarantees of defence of those accused – in the confession in serious crimes, in the case of witnesses who cease to go to trial, in the abbreviated case for serious crimes, in the right to reply in appeal and in the new fine for dilatory acts – may be at stake.
In relation to the abbreviated procedure for serious crimes, for example, “the provider asks that this possibility be declared unconstitutional whenever more than five years may be applied, as the Constitutional Court decided in 2014 on the summary procedure,” the statement says.
“ Given the importance of these matters, the provider also asked for the process to be evaluated with priority, provided that the agreement of the Assembly of the Republic, as author of Law No 34/2026, of July 27”, advances.
On October 16 the newspaper Expresso reported that the Socialist Party (PS) parliamentary group decided to take the review of the amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure to the Constitutional Court (TC).
On the same day, the Bar Association (OA) welcomed the decision and stated that it had sent in July to “all entities with legitimacy to request the successive review of constitutionality” a letter “appelling to submit to the Constitutional Court various standards of this diploma”.