Portugal's Minister of Internal Administration Rui Pereira and Attorney-General Fernando Pinto Monteiro on Thursday respectively unveiled new measures to strengthen the fight against violent crimes that have haunted the country recently.
Rui Pereira announced in an interview with local media that certain amendments would be made to the current Weapon Law. According to the modified version, whoever found to have used firearms in any criminal case will be subject to preventive detention. He also proposed prevention detention against violent and serious crimes.
Attorney-General Fernando Pinto Monteiro, on the same day, also unveiled a package of measures against violent crimes to local news media. He said that special taskforces would be established in Lisbon, Porto and Evora to deal with an upsurge in violent crimes, and that the taskforces established would cooperate with judicial police, the Guarda Nacional Republicana and security police in crime investigation.
Stressing cooperation, Monteiro pointed out the importance of immediate information sharing to facilitate crackdown on the increasingly serious organized and large-scale crimes.
A meeting to further discuss the establishment of the taskforces will be held on Sept. 5, added Monteiro.
This year has witnessed an upsurge in violent crimes in Portugal. Two of the most sensational cases were the robbery on Aug. 18, in which five gangsters bombed a cash-in-transit vehicle on a highway and took away 2.5 million euro (3.67 million U.S. dollars) cash in it, and a bank robbery committed by two foreigners on Aug. 7.
In Portugal, though each 1,000 citizens are under the protection of an average of 4.7 policemen -- ranking second in the European Union and seventh worldwide, it seems far away from effectively stopping crimes.
The Portuguese government admits that the number of violent crimes in the country has been on the rise so far this year. And analysts say the current rampancy of crimes may be attributed to the country's economic stagnation.
Source:Xinhua
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