Skip to content
OpenCells

PT · Quoted clause attached

Portugal

Yes — Lei 52/2003 art. 4(3): distributing a public message that defends, praises, encourages, or calls for terrorist offences (apologia pública). Overlay 240 is a separate hatred cell.

Back to atlas

Civic layer on Watch

    Independent-praise crime?
    Yes — Lei 52/2003 art. 4(3): distributing a public message that defends, praises, encourages, or calls for terrorist offences (apologia pública). Overlay 240 is a separate hatred cell.
    Live statuteSupportedPTListed-speech offence

    art. 4.º n.º 3

    Lei n.º 52/2003 (Lei de combate ao terrorismo)

    Target
    Public message that defends, praises, encourages, or calls for terrorist offences
    Test
    Distribute or disseminate to the public, by any means, a message that incites the practice of listed terrorist offences, including by defending, praising, encouraging, or appealing. Electronic/internet form is a separate, higher limb (n.º 4).
    Max
    1 to 5 years (1 to 6 years via electronic means accessible on the internet)
    Quem, defendendo, elogiando, incentivando ou apelando à prática de infrações terroristas, por qualquer meio distribuir ou difundir mensagem ao público que incite à prática das infrações terroristas previstas nas alíneas a) a i) do n.º 3 do artigo 2.º, é punido com pena de prisão de 1 a 5 anos.

    Official Portuguese, Diário da República consolidated Lei 52/2003 art. 4.º n.º 3 (as amended, including Lei 60/2015 criminalising apologia pública). Working English: anyone who, by defending, praising, encouraging, or calling for terrorist offences, distributes or disseminates to the public a message inciting those offences.

    Cite · Lei 52/2003, art. 4.º n.º 3 · as of 2026-09-05

    • This is a listed-speech offence. It is not Código Penal art. 240 hatred.
    • This is the apologia / praise limb, not Código Penal art. 240 (discrimination and incitement to hatred — overlay).
    • n.º 4 raises the ceiling to 6 years when committed via electronic means accessible on the internet.
    • n.º 8 separately punishes rewarding or praising another person or terrorist group, gated on creating a danger of a terrorist offence. Not this quote.
    Primary source