Entry into force Law no. 94/2021. A controversial and widely discussed topic, the fight against the phenomenon of corruption is one of the fundamental objectives of the XXII Constitutional Government, in order to make State action more transparent and fair and guarantee equal treatment between citizens.

It was precisely in this sense that Law nº 94/2021, published on December 21, was approved, one of the amendments to the criminal procedure code that is part of the package of anti-corruption laws that will come into force this March, and which could generate some discussion.

Approved unanimously by the deputies two weeks before the dissolution of parliament, this specific measure aims to ensure that a judge who has had any intervention in the investigation, however small, is automatically prevented from presiding over the investigation and trial phases.

This new rule, among the others, which will also apply to ongoing cases, can inevitably lead to a delay during proceedings, insofar as it may happen that all judges in each region are prevented from intervening in the investigation or trial a since during the period of the judicial holidays in which they are scheduled to ensure the urgent service, they intervened in several investigations. In this sense, it should be noted that the interventions often do not imply any commitment on the part of the judge to the prosecution and that, in this way, the intervention of judges from other courts will be necessary, who will have to suspend the service assigned to them.

It is important to end this article with the explanation that until now and under the terms of art. imposition of conduct, obligation to stay in the house or preventive detention or preside over the instructional debate” this is because such judgments presupposed a deep knowledge of the evidence contained in the investigation, which called into question the necessary distance conditioned by the decisions already taken.