Portugal’s crackdown on arson appears to show results
It is early days yet – but so far this year, the number of wildfires assailing Portugal has been reduced on recent years, and this may have something to do with the number of arsonists either behind bars, under house arrest or in preventive custody..
According to Expresso “there have never been so many inmates in Portuguese jails serving sentences for the crime of forest fires”.
Official data (as of August 5) from the ministry of justice and prison authorities show there are currently 57 arsonists serving jail sentences, and 12 others in preventive custody awaiting trial.
This is the highest number in all the years in which this kind of crime has been monitored.
In 2013, there were 21 people jailed for arson in the countryside. This went up to 36 in 2014, 39 in 2015, 40 in 2016 – and finally last year, there were 50 people in jail.
Now, that number is even higher, while up until the end of July this year, the number of rural wildfires (and the damages caused) was markedly less compared to recent years.
Sources stress that this turnaround owes much to the change in approach by magistrates who, in the past, may have ‘freed’ arsonists, leaving them to repeat offend.
These days, the understanding is that “the only way to control” this kind of behaviour is to lock people up (or at least ensure they are unable to repeat offend during the critical time – periods of intense heat without rain or nighttime humidity).
The ‘old days’ when arsonists were labelled ‘illiterates, with a chip on their shoulders’ have also gone, following repeated incidents where devastating fires have been deliberately started by highly-skilled people using electronic devices.
Says Expresso, everything changed in 2017 (the year when ‘everything changed’ in terms of wildfires that killed over 100 people, destroying multiple homes and businesses). From that moment, a law was in place allowing authorities to control repeat offenders, by ensuring they were put in preventive custody/ under house arrest, during the fire season.
The highest number of people ‘kept under control’ this way during any year since 2017 has been nine (last year). In total, 33 people have been ‘controlled’ via the placing of electronic tags since 2017 – and two others have been confined to psychiatric institutions for the fire season. This year however, that number has fallen to just one person. And so far, so good.
That said, areas around Póvoa de Lanhoso and Vieira do Minho were rocked by a succession of fires, started at night, recently – the suspect, a 45-year-old woman, is now in preventive custody.
