TEIXEIRA DE CASTRO JUDGMENT OF 9 JUNE 1998
6
In the light of these considerations the Supreme Court dismisses the appeal and
upholds all the provisions of the judgment appealed against.”
II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC LAW
A. Legislative Decree no. 430/83 of 13 December 1983
23. The relevant provisions of Legislative Decree no. 430/83 of
13 December 1983 on the Prevention of Drug Trafficking, which was in
force at the material time, read as follows:
Article 23 § 1
“Anyone who, without being lawfully authorised to do so, grows, produces,
manufactures, extracts, offers to supply, puts on sale, sells, distributes, buys, assigns
or, in any capacity, receives, procures from others, transports, imports, brings in and
out of the country or illicitly has in his possession, other than for the reasons stated in
Article 36, any of the substances or preparations referred to in tables I to III, shall on
conviction be liable to between six and twelve years’ imprisonment and a fine of
between 50,000 and 5,000,000 escudos.”
Article 52
“1. A criminal investigation agent who, in the course of preliminary inquiries and
without revealing his identity, accepts either in person or through a third party an offer
for narcotics or other psychotropic substances shall not be liable to prosecution in
respect of such conduct.
2. A report on such action shall be added to the case file within a maximum of
24 hours.”
24. Drug trafficking is now covered by Legislative Decree no. 15/93 of
22 January 1993. Article 52 of Legislative Decree no. 430/83 is reproduced
with no material change in Article 59 of the new decree.
B. The Code of Criminal Procedure
25. The main provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure referred to
in the instant case are as follows:
Article 126
“1. Evidence obtained through torture, the use of force or any kind of physical or
psychological duress shall be invalid and inadmissible.
2. Evidence obtained by any of the following means shall be deemed to have been
obtained by physical or psychological duress even where the victim has consented
thereto: