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1. Source of the legal provision

Article 240 of the Portuguese Criminal Code, as amended by Law No. 4/2024. Discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence [Lei n.º 4/2024, de 15/01. Discriminação e incitamento ao ódio e à violência] Available in the original language via: Diário da República; <https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/legislacao-consolidada/decreto-lei/1995-34437675-836759596>.  

2. Legal provision in English

Article 240 Discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence[1] 1 – Whoever:
  1. a) Founds or sets up an organisation or carries out propaganda activities that incite or encourage discrimination, hatred or violence against a person or group of persons on the grounds of their ethno-racial origin, national or religious origin, colour, nationality, descent, territory of origin, religion, language, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or sex characteristics, physical or mental disability; or
  2. b) Participates in the organisations referred to in the previous paragraph, in the activities undertaken by them or providing them with assistance, including funding;
shall be punished with imprisonment of one to eight years. 2 – Whoever, publicly, by any means intended for dissemination, namely through apology, denial or gross trivialisation of crimes of genocide, war or against peace and humanity:
  1. a) Causes acts of violence against a person or group of persons because of their ethno-racial origin, national or religious origin, colour, nationality, ancestry, territory of origin, religion, language, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or sexual characteristics, physical or mental disability;
  2. b) Defames or insults a person or group of persons because of their racial/ethnic origin, national or religious origin, colour, nationality, descent, territory of origin, religion, language, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or sexual characteristics; or
  3. c) Threats a person or group of persons because of their racial/ethnic origin, national or religious origin, colour, nationality, descent, territory of origin, religion, language, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or sex characteristics, physical or mental disability; or
  4. d) Incites discrimination, hatred or violence against a person or group of persons because of their racial/ethnic origin, national or religious origin, colour, nationality, descent, territory of origin, religion, language, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or sex characteristics, physical or mental disability;
shall be punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years. 3 – When the offences provided for in the previous paragraphs are committed using a computer system, the court may order the deletion of computer data or content.  

3. Legal provision in the original language

Artigo 240 Discriminação e incitamento ao ódio e à violência 1 – Quem:
  1. a) Fundar ou constituir organização ou desenvolver atividades de propaganda que incitem ou encorajem à discriminação, ao ódio ou à violência contra pessoa ou grupo de pessoas em razão da sua origem étnico-racial, origem nacional ou religiosa, cor, nacionalidade, ascendência, território de origem, religião, língua, sexo, orientação sexual, identidade ou expressão de género ou características sexuais, deficiência física ou psíquica; ou
  2. b) Participar nas organizações referidas na alínea anterior, nas atividades por elas empreendidas ou lhes prestar assistência, incluindo o seu financiamento;
é punido com pena de prisão de um a oito anos. 2 – Quem, publicamente, por qualquer meio destinado a divulgação, nomeadamente através da apologia, negação ou banalização grosseira de crimes de genocídio, guerra ou contra a paz e a humanidade:
  1. a) Provocar atos de violência contra pessoa ou grupo de pessoas por causa da sua origem étnico-racial, origem nacional ou religiosa, cor, nacionalidade, ascendência, território de origem, religião, língua, sexo, orientação sexual, identidade ou expressão de género ou características sexuais, deficiência física ou psíquica;
  2. b) Difamar ou injuriar pessoa ou grupo de pessoas por causa da sua origem étnico-racial, origem nacional ou religiosa, cor, nacionalidade, ascendência, território de origem, religião, língua, sexo, orientação sexual, identidade ou expressão de género ou características sexuais, deficiência física ou psíquica;
  3. c) Ameaçar pessoa ou grupo de pessoas por causa da sua origem étnico-racial, origem nacional ou religiosa, cor, nacionalidade, ascendência, território de origem, religião, língua, sexo, orientação sexual, identidade ou expressão de género ou características sexuais, deficiência física ou psíquica; ou
  4. d) Incitar à discriminação, ao ódio ou à violência contra pessoa ou grupo de pessoas por causa da sua origem étnico-racial, origem nacional ou religiosa, cor, nacionalidade, ascendência, território de origem, religião, língua, sexo, orientação sexual, identidade ou expressão de género ou características sexuais, deficiência física ou psíquica;
é punido com pena de prisão de 6 meses a 5 anos. 3 – Quando os crimes previstos nos números anteriores forem cometidos através de sistema informático, o tribunal pode ordenar a eliminação de dados informáticos ou conteúdos.

4. Key points

  • Portugal does not have a specific ban on Holocaust denial, but prohibits the denial, promotion, or gross trivialization of genocides in general, war crimes, or crimes against peace and humanity.
  • This applies when the conduct causes acts of violence, defames, insults, threatens, or incites discrimination, hatred, or violence against a person or group based on certain characteristics like race, colour, ethnic or national origin, ancestry or religion.
  • The basic sanction for breaching the denial ban may include imprisonment for between 6 months and 5 years.

5. Background

In 1998, Portugal amended Article 240 of its Criminal Code, for the first time introducing questions of memory directly into its criminal law (namely at article 240: 2 – b). The original version of that article dated from 1995 (DL n.º 48/95, de 15/03), and only concerned, according to its title, “Racial discrimination”. The 1998 version thus enlarged this title to “Racial or religious discrimination”. The title was then changed to “Racial, religious or sexual discrimination” (2007 version; also maintained in the 2013 version), and to a new formulation: “Discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence” (2017 version), which remains the current one (6th version – 2024). None of these successive versions make any direct reference to the Holocaust. Nevertheless, the importance of its remembrance casts a remarkable place in Portuguese pedagogical and legal policies (e.g., Portugal is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) from 2019;[2] International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27th January) is officially commemorated in Portugal; and there are many other activities related to Holocaust remembrance,[3], namely exhibitions, debates or remembrance places, like Aristides de Sousa Mendes Museum[4]).  

6. Application

Although Portuguese law makes no direct mention of the criminalization of Holocaust denial, in 2012, Article 240, no. 2, al. B of the Portuguese Criminal Code was applied for the first time to a case of Holocaust denial. This instance placed Portugal “on the list of countries that, in practice, criminalize Holocaust denialism”.[5] The case concerned Gerhard Ittner, a German neo-Nazi intellectual who was arrested in Portugal in April 2012. The Supreme Court of Justice, in a ruling of July 5, 2012, dismissed the case and decided to extradite Ittner, complying with a European arrest warrant. Gerhard Ittner had been convicted in Germany for Holocaust denial. The ruling thus confirmed that this type of public statement is also punishable under Portuguese law.  

7. Controversies

Towards the end of the 20th century, there were several cases of antisemitic provocations involving Holocaust denial: Artur Nunes da Silva called the Holocaust a “myth” (1996); Silva Resende “excused” the Nazi crimes (1996); Carlos Azeredo referred to the Holocaust in quotation marks (1997). In another text by Pedro Miguel Melo de Almeida (2003), the author used quotation marks to spell the word Holocaust and thus questioned the six million Jews killed.[6] The denial of the Holocaust is still a point of reflection and debate in an academic and, consequently, political context. José Pacheco Pereira, in 2007, speaking about the introduction of legislation in European Union countries to criminalise the Holocaust, stated that “Holocaust denial is a historical aberration and political extremism”, and stressed that “any criminalization of thinking and saying is liberticidal.” [7] Of major importance also remains the introduction of changes to nationality and citizenship law, in regard to the granting of the Portuguese nationality for Sephardic Jews, i.e., those from Sefarad (the territory of Portugal and Spain – the Iberian Peninsula – at the time when all Jews who did not convert to the Christian faith were expelled from Portugal and Spain by decree in the 15th century). To this end, legislation was drawn up (not without controversy)[8] that opened up Portuguese nationality to Sephardic Jews, upon their formal request to the Portuguese state, according to certain criteria, which is considered to be one of the first pieces of legislation on a form of historical reparations.[9]  

8. Further reading

  • Koposov, ‘Memory Laws in Western Europe’, Memory Laws, Memory Wars: The Politics of the Past in Europe and Russia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 60-125.
  • Bartrop, E. Grimm, ‘Portugal’, The Holocaust: Country by Country, Bloomsbury, 2024, pp. 252-256.
  • Clara, ‘‘Collaborating neutrality?’ Portuguese collaboration networks at the Secretariat of National Propaganda’, Martina Bitunjac, Julius H. Schoeps (ed.), Complicated Complicity: European Collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II, Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2021, pp. 241-260.
  [1] Translation on the basis of OSCE. Available here: <https://hatecrime.osce.org/hate-crime-legislation-portugal>. [2] Government of Portugal official website: <https://www.portugal.gov.pt/pt/gc22/comunicacao/noticia?i=portugal-integra-alianca-internacional-para-a-memoria-do-holocausto>; IHRA: <https://holocaustremembrance.com/countries/portugal>. [3] See especially the Council of Ministers Resolution no. 51/2020, of June 25, that, inter alia, established the project Nunca Esquecer [Never Forget], a national project on Holocaust Remembrance: <https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/resolucao-conselho-ministros/51-2020-136600049>. [4] Aristides de Sousa Mendes Foundation: <https://fundacaoaristidesdesousamendes.pt/>. Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954) was a Portuguese consul stationed in Bordeaux (France) that, defying the direct orders of the Portuguese government, issued thousands of visas due to give refugees the opportunity to flee from Holocaust. Since 1998, the Portuguese government has officially made efforts to disseminate the memory of Sousa Mendes as one of the personalities that helped to save thousands of people, indiscriminately, from war and consequently from the nazi holocaust. Cf. Jose-Alain Fralon; Peter Graham, A Good Man in Evil Times: The Story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes – The Man Who Saved the Lives of Countless Refugees in World War II, New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001. [5] ‘Extraditado alemão preso em Portugal por negar holocausto’, Diário de Notícias, 12 november 2012: <https://www.dn.pt/arquivo/diario-de-noticias/extraditado-alemao-preso-em-portugal-por-negar-holocausto.html>. [6] ‘De novo, a mentira da negação do Holocausto…’, Público, 14 april 2003: <https://www.publico.pt/2003/04/14/jornal/de-novo-a-mentira-da-negacao-do-holocausto-200173>. [7] ‘Um mau caminho para a liberdade’, Público, 21 april 2007: <https://www.publico.pt/2007/04/21/jornal/um-mau-caminho-para-a-liberdade-211798>. [8] ‘Cresce movimento contra alteração da lei da nacionalidade de judeus sefarditas’, Expresso, 13 may 2020: <https://expresso.pt/sociedade/2020-05-13-Cresce-movimento-contra-alteracao-da-lei-da-nacionalidade-de-judeus-sefarditas>. [9] See DL n.º 26/2022, 18 march: https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/decreto-lei/26-2022-180657814; and previous DL n.º 30-A/2015, 27 february: https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/decreto-lei/30-a-2015-66619927.
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