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São Paulo: Lula backs lowering criminal responsibility age to 16 for heinous crimes
Brazil's president told TV Globo's Jornal Nacional he supports cutting the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 for heinous crimes, as a Senate vote on a public-safety bill was postponed.
Why it matters
With the October 25 presidential runoff ten days away, public safety has become a campaign flashpoint. Brazil's current age of criminal responsibility is 18, and this is Lula's clearest endorsement yet of lowering the threshold.
Full report
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on October 15, in an interview with TV Globo's Jornal Nacional in São Paulo, that he supports lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 for heinous crimes.
Lula will face Senator Flavio Bolsonaro — son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who surprisingly led him in the first round — in the runoff on October 25.
Opposition lawmakers had proposed adding the age reduction to a government-backed bill aimed at strengthening federal public-safety powers. The bill was set to be voted on in the Senate on Thursday but the vote was postponed amid the dispute over the criminal-responsibility age.
Lula said the age reduction should not be discussed in that bill because the proposal before Congress focuses on a different issue. Opposition lawmakers, including Bolsonaro, support lowering it to 16 in general and to 14 for violent crimes.
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