Португалия

The new National Plan to Combat  Racism and Discrimination 2021-2025 (Plano Nacional de Combate ao Racismo e à Discriminação 2021-2025 - Portugal contra o racismo), announced the revision of Article 240 of the Portuguese Criminal Code in light of the international binding instruments to which Portugal is a party. The revision is aimed at extending the list of protected grounds under the provision. The Ministry of Justice is working on a draft amendment.

Law no. 55/2020, of 27 August 2020, defining the objectives, priorities, and general criminal policy general guidelines for the years 2020-2022, establishes crimes motivated by racial, religious, or sexual discrimination as crimes of priority prevention, thus recognizing the vital importance of combatting hate crimes in Portugal. Moreover, acknowledging that the internet is the predominant vehicle of communication associated with hate crimes, cybercrime is also considered both a crime of priority prevention and investigation.

Notable case

In July 2020, the murderer of a black Portuguese  actor shot dead in the middle of the day on a busy street in Lisbon was sentenced to 22 years and 9 months in prison for the crime of qualified murder, considering proven the motivation of racial hatred. The defendant will also have to pay 120,000 euros in compensation to the family of the victim. In the indictment, the prosecution charged the accused with aggravated murder "for vain reasons" and because it had been motivated by the victim's "colour and ethnic origin". The appeal was pending at the time of the publication of ODIHR's 2020 Hate Crime Report.