Diario de Notices (DN) has reported on 24th December that the Judicial Police investigates more than one case a day of corruption. Condemnations are only 0.04% of the total registered at first instance
Trial court judges last year condemned 25 defendants for the crime of corruption. The number of investigations carried out by the Judiciary Police (PJ) shows more significantly: 473 investigations (an average of one per day) last year against 345 in 2014. The data are from the Directorate General for Justice Policy (DGPJ) which reveals Statistics between 2007 and 2015 From 2007 to last year the number of convictions for this crime has reduced to less than half (from 52 to 25). The number of defendants nine years ago was, however, much more significant (102) than in the previous year (45).
As of September last year, the Public Prosecutor (MP) – responsible for the charges – completed 536 investigations that ended in prosecution, that is, that there was sufficient evidence to bring to trial. In the same period of this year (September 2016) 617 counts were deducted. Still, based on these data, it is not possible to make a direct comparison because the cases investigated, accused and that resulted in conviction in that period, are not necessarily the same.
Contacted by the DN, the national director of the Judiciary Police (PJ) Almeida Rodrigues admits that, this year and until the beginning of the month, 119 suspects have already been arrested for corruption. “What makes an average detainee every three days.”
Justice Minister Francisca Van Dunem, prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, gave her former colleagues a word of confidence in the fight against corruption, recalling that Portugal ranks 28th in 167 countries in the Ranking of the perception of corruption, prepared by Transparency International.