Newsletter
May 2018 Terrorism, Sporting and Alcochete

Much has been said about terrorism in connection with the recent events at Sporting's training academy in Alcochete.

But from the point of view of criminal law, with the known data, can we talk about terrorism as typified in the special law 52/2003 of 22 August?

In my humble opinion, I don't think so.

First of all, because a crime of terrorism is not committed by anyone who commits certain crimes - no matter how serious or organised they may be - but only by those who commit them with an objective defined by law for terrorist organisations.
For example, a terrorist act is not committed by anyone who decides to kill an individual because they are black (or any other race), but only by those who do so with a motivation that transcends that act, that is, with the aim of terrorising all individuals of that race.

In my view, reconciling articles 1 and 4 of this special law, it is never possible to speak of terrorism when the criminal acts - known as "half-crimes" - are limited to the victims and only the victims were targeted.

In these cases, there is never any question of public peace, a protected legal good, which would be affected if, for example, a few football players were targeted with the motivation of making all football players fearful.

We can only speak of terrorism when people other than the victims feel intimidated and a climate of terror is created in those other people.
In the case of the acts carried out against the Sporting players in Alcochete, everything indicates that they were the ones who were targeted, and the motivation was exhausted in these attacks. In other words, those players were the only victims to be targeted and public peace was not at stake because no one else, apart from those players, could be intimidated, nor was that the aim of the attackers.

Article by: Tiago Melo Alves