It is the most recent case – but it accumulates to others that occurred in the last few days. A 43-year-old man who is infected with the new coronavirus was arrested this Sunday in Póvoa de Varzim for violating the duty of confinement.
Only this Sunday, according to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 14 people were arrested by the security forces for the crime of disobedience “namely for breach of the obligation of mandatory confinement and for other situations of disobedience or resistance”. Minister Eduardo Cabrita, in the assessment of the first phase of the state of emergency, gave an “extremely positive” note to the efforts of citizens. Even so, 108 those who ended up in detention by the security forces for the crime of disobedience. Of these, 29 was for confinement violations.
When the police questioned the neighbors, they couldn’t believe it. Everyone said the same thing: the 43-year-old man spent his days at the café, the bakery and strolling through the parish of Aver-o-Mar, in Póvoa de Varzim, and he only returned home “always at night, already late”, report the Jornal de Notícias. The problem? This 43-year-old man is infected with the new coronavirus.
The construction worker was emigrated to France, but returned to Portugal in mid-March. At that time I had flu symptoms, such as cough and fever. At the São João hospital, in Porto, the worst scenario was confirmed: he was infected with Covid-19 and, therefore, he was sent home – where he lives with his 70-year-old mother and where he should have been in isolation, he writes. the same newspaper.
Since then, the health authorities have never been able to contact him again, and on this basis, the PSP carried out an operation to find him – which was successful. According to JN, the patient claimed that he no longer had symptoms, but assumed that, since being tested, he continued to walk on the street and did not fulfill the isolation. More: confessed that he hadn’t even informed his mother that he was infected.
When the PSP detained the Espinho resident infected with the new coronavirus and, therefore, should be confined, the man had been shopping in various establishments. The arrest, for disobedience of the mandatory confinement occurred on the morning of this Friday, advanced Jornal de Notícias and confirmed the Observer to a source at the Espinho Police Station.
According to the same newspaper, the man who is infected with Covid-19 and who, therefore, should be in compulsory confinement at his home, left the residence to make several purchases. For example, first went to the bakery and then to a hypermarket in the city.
The suspicions only arose when the man stopped taking calls from PSP agents who, details the JN, oversee compliance with the confinements decreed by health authorities. The policemen went to find the man at the door of his house, where he had just arrived. According to the same newspaper, he still had the shopping bags in his hand.
A man was detained in Ovar for driving on public roads despite the mandatory confinement he is subjected to because he is infected with the covid-19 virus, revealed the Aveiro district command of the PSP, in a statement issued on 30 March. According to that police authority, the crime of disobedience took place as early as Friday, when the 46-year-old man from Válega was intercepted while driving.
“After consulting the list of people subject to that measure [de confinamento obrigatório], it was confirmed that the individual had tested on March 25 and accused positive ”, says the PSP.
The man was, therefore, obliged by law to home isolation “to prevent the spread of contagious disease”, so he was escorted home by the agents and the subject of a communication to the Public Ministry about the occurrence.
The Penal Code provides that the crime of disobedience is punished with a penalty of imprisonment up to one year or with a penalty of up to 120 days. The penalty may be higher – up to two years in prison or fine up to 240 days – in the case of a crime of qualified disobedience.
But during the state of emergency, feathers can be aggravated by one third, once the measure foreseen in the Basic Law for Civil Protection was triggered. What does this law say? In point 4 of article 6, it details that the penalties for the crime of disobedience, when practiced “in a situation of alertness, contingency or calamity”, are “always aggravated by one third, in their minimum and maximum limits”.
Furthermore: the Penal Code provides, in article 283, that those who spread a contagious disease and “thus create danger to life or serious danger to the physical integrity of another ”can be punished with imprisonment from one to eight years. If the danger is created by negligence, the penalty is imprisonment of up to five years. If the conduct that led to this danger is practiced through negligence, the penalty is imprisonment up to three years or a fine.
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