ABDUCTION | AGGRAVATED ASSAULTROMA CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS | FORCED MARRIAGE | VIRGINITY TEST
Coimbra Court of Appeal, proc. 557/09.0JAPRT.C1, 29.09.2010
JURISDICTION: Criminal
SUBJECT: Abduction and aggravated assault
RAPPORTEUR: Alberto Mira
RULING: The appeal was dismissed, with full confirmation of the contested decision, which had sentenced the appellant to six years and six months imprisonment, for the practice as co-offender of the crimes of aggravated assault and abduction.
DOMESTIC LAW:
Code of Criminal Procedure [Articles 125, 127, 410(2), 417(2)]
Criminal Code [Articles 26, 27(1), 40(1)(2), 71, 132(2)(c), 143(1), 145(1)(a), 158(2)(a)(b), 161(1)(b)(2)(a)]
Civil Code (Articles 349 and 351)
Supreme Court of Justice, proc. 03P3213, 07.01.2004
INTERNATIONAL LAW: n.a.
FOREIGN LAW: n.a.
KEYWORDS: Abduction; assault; Roma customs and traditions; child sexual abuse; manifestly incongruous testimony; Roma encampment; forced marriage; shed; virginity test; ritual for confirmation of virginity; ajuntadeira; Roma women; Roma culture ritual; Roma ethnicity rites; Roma customs and rites; Roma rituals; minimum social income; guided by the ethnicity’s ancestral customs; lack of critical conscience; customs and rituals specific to the Roma ethnicity; normal in the framework of the Roma ethnicity traditions and customs; social image; social report; sensitive to the idiosyncrasies and cultural specificities of the Roma ethnicity; rules of common experience; free assessment of the evidence; co-offending; complicity; forensic sexual examination report; right to silence; sexual relations with a minor; sensible and normal; elements of Roma ethnicity; simple and natural assumptions; direct evidence; indirect evidence; inevitable subjective elements in human thinking and acting; reasonable understanding of the rules of life; common sense; averagely sensible and perceptive citizen; crime of a sexual nature; human dignity; viewed as normal in the framework of the ethnicity’s traditions and customs; respect for Roma idiosyncrasies; modus vivendi; respect for cultural diversity; tradition; worldviews; axiological heritage; practices and customs ingrained in a given group, ethnicity, race or belief; principle of equality; rules, principles and values which are fundamental to life in society
COMMENTS: Coming soon.
REFERENCES IN THE LITERATURE:
FRIEDRICH, Nicole, Diferença Cultural Sub Judice: Minorias Étnicas na Jurisprudência dos Tribunais Superiores Portugueses [Cultural Difference in Court: Ethnic Minorities in the Case Law of Portuguese Higher Courts], Braga, University of Minho, 2022, available at https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/?locale=en.
LOPES, João Teixeira, LEÃO, Anabela Costa, e FERRO, Lígia, “Assessing cultural expertise in Portugal: Challenges and opportunities”, Cultural Expertise and Socio-Legal Studies: Special Issue Studies in Law, Politics and Society, vol. 78, 2019, pp. 57-74.
RAIMUNDO, João, Cumplicidade [Complicity], Lisbon, Nova University of Lisbon, 2018, available at http://hdl.handle.net/10362/46499.
SEBASTIÃO, Lucas, O Casamento Tradicional Angolano [Angolan Traditional Marriage], Lisbon, Autonomous University of Lisbon, 2018, available at http://hdl.handle.net/11144/3442 [28.03.2022].
TAVARES, Rui Miguel dos Santos, Casamento Forçado: Uma Aproximação Civilística no Ordenamento Jurídico Português, Coimbra, Universidade de Coimbra, 2018, disponível em http://hdl.handle.net/10316/85719.
REFERENCES IN THE LITERATURE: n.a.
Download the ruling.
EN 
PT