Vasco Sousa Vieira comments to Executive Digest on the new law on extended confiscation of assets
Vasco Sousa Vieira commented to Executive Digest on the new law on extended confiscation of assets, recently approved by Parliament and sent to Belém.
The bill, which transposes Directive (EU) 2024/1260 on asset recovery and confiscation into Portuguese law, aims to strengthen the State’s ability to deprive crime of the economic advantages obtained. However, Vasco Sousa Vieira warns of the doubts raised by the proposal from the perspective of its constitutional compliance, particularly where it provides for the possibility of ordering the confiscation of assets without a court conviction and, in certain cases, without an indictment from the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the lawyer, a confiscation order in these circumstances, even when based on an assessment of the unlawful origin of the assets, may conflict with fundamental principles such as the presumption of innocence, proportionality and the right to property.
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