‎Brazil News

 

Christmas pardon benefits mothers, the elderly and people with serious illnesses

Those involved in coup acts will not benefit from the presidential pardon.

From the Editors

 

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

 

Updated at 07:30

 

The Christmas pardon signed by the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , was published this Monday, the 23rd, in an Extra edition of the DOU . The text established as a priority groups in vulnerable situations, such as the elderly, pregnant women, mothers of children and adolescents, people with disabilities or serious illnesses, such as terminally ill HIV carriers.

 

 

 

Lula's Christmas pardon benefits women, the elderly and people with serious illnesses. (Image: Paulo Pinto/Agência Brasil)

This year, the pardon will be granted to pregnant women with high-risk pregnancies. In addition, mothers and grandmothers convicted of crimes without serious threat or violence will be pardoned if they prove that they are essential for the care of children up to 12 years old with disabilities.

 

The text also provides for benefits for those infected with terminal HIV or who have a serious, chronic or highly contagious disease, without the possibility of receiving care in a prison unit.

 

Inmates with severe autism spectrum disorder and inmates who have become paraplegic, quadriplegic, blind, or have other disabilities represent other groups with access to pardon.

 

The decree also determined that the conditions for the benefit be facilitated for those over 60 years of age, people essential to the care of children up to 12 years of age or with serious illnesses.

 

Preventive crimes

 

The collective pardon does not apply to individuals who are members of criminal factions with leadership roles, those subject to the Differentiated Disciplinary Regime, nor to those included in or transferred to maximum security penal establishments.

 

This year, the presidential decree innovates by prohibiting pardons for those convicted of abuse of authority, reinforcing the commitment to holding public officials accountable for misusing their functions. Those who have committed crimes against the Public Administration, such as embezzlement and passive corruption, will also not be granted pardons.

 

Those convicted of heinous crimes, torture, terrorism, racism, money laundering and concealment of assets, violence against women, children and adolescents, among others, will also be excluded from the benefit, as in the previous year.

 

Furthermore, the ban on benefits for those who entered into a plea bargain agreement, members of criminal organizations and those convicted under a different disciplinary regime was renewed.

 

The text once again excludes from pardon those charged with crimes against the Democratic Rule of Law, which includes those convicted of the coup acts of January 8, 2023.

 

Christmas pardon

 

The benefit is provided for in the Constitution and is a tradition during the Christmas festivities. In practice, it means the pardon of the sentence, allowing the prisoner to be released. It can also result in the total extinction of the sentence as specified in the decree.

 

In 2019, the Supreme Federal Court ruled that the President of the Republic has the constitutional power to issue pardons. Each year, the government debates the criteria for who will be eligible for or excluded from the benefit.

 

The proposal was drawn up by the National Council for Criminal and Penitentiary Policy and validated by the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, before the decree was signed by the President of the Republic.

 

Entities such as the OAB, Anadep, Pastoral Carcerária and the Brazilian Institute of Criminal Sciences contributed to its development.

 

Check out the full decree:

 

DECREE No. 12,338, OF DECEMBER 23, 2024

 

Grants Christmas pardon and commutation of sentence and makes other provisions.

 

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, in the exercise of the power conferred upon him by art. 84, caput, item XII, of the Constitution, in view of the decision handed down by the Plenary of the Supreme Federal Court, on the occasion of the trial of the Claim of Non-Compliance with Fundamental Precept No. 347/DF, and the statement of the National Council for Criminal and Penitentiary Policy, and considering the tradition, on the occasion of the Christmas festivities, of granting pardons to people convicted or subject to security measures and of commuting the sentences of convicted people,

 

DECREES:

 

CHAPTER I

 

GENERAL PROVISIONS

 

 link: https://www.migalhas.com.br/quentes/422134/indulto-natalino-beneficia-maes-idosos-e-pessoas-com-doencas-graves