Amnesty International Portugal Annual Report 2012

Amnesty International Portugal Annual Report 2012 is worse than last year


Annual Report 2012

The state of the world's human rights

Portugal

Head of state Aníbal António Cavaco Silva

Head of government Pedro Manuel Mamede Passos Coelho (replaced José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa in June)

Death penalty abolitionist for all crimes

Population 10.7 million

Life expectancy 79.5 years

Under-5 mortality 3.7 per 1,000

Adult literacy 94.9 per cent

There was little accountability for torture and other ill-treatment. Roma were discriminated against in access to housing. Domestic violence remained a serious concern.

Torture and other ill-treatment
In February, a video showing prison guards using a dart-firing stun gun against an inmate in Paços de Ferreira prison in September 2010, allegedly to force him to clean his cell, was broadcast on the internet. The man appeared to offer no resistance. In April, the Minister of Justice issued a decree forbidding the use of stun guns in similar circumstances. An inquiry by the Audit and Inspection services of the General Directorate for prisons was pending at the end of the year.

In March, the Court of Appeal of Evora confirmed an earlier ruling that Leonor Cipriano had been tortured while in police custody in 2004, but that it could not identify those responsible. Leonor Cipriano had yet to receive compensation from the state. Gonçalo de Sousa Amaral and António Fernandes Nuno Cardoso, senior officials in the judicial police, had been sentenced to 18 months’ and 27 months’ imprisonment respectively, for falsely claiming Leonor Cipriano had fallen down the stairs. However, both sentences were suspended on the grounds that the officers had no previous criminal convictions.

Hearings in the trial of three police officers, accused of torturing Virgolino Borges while in police custody in March 2000, took place in November and December. Virgolino Borges was asked to give his testimony again as the recording had allegedly been lost due to technical problems.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/portugal/report-2012

Leonor not only recieved no compensation from the state, she has not had her conviction quashed, or made unsafe, nor has she been granted a retrial.

It is a disgusting miscarraige of justice.l

I agree with you dianeh.