Overview
- Lawmakers approved PL 4716/2025 to define the killing of a person aged 60 or older as gerontocide and sent the measure to the Senate.
- The text sets prison terms of 20 to 40 years and classifies the offense as heinous, with tougher sentence progression for first-time offenders set at 55%, while reports diverge on the penalty for the non-intentional form (2–6 years versus 2–6 months).
- Penalties can rise by one third in specified circumstances such as use of poison or torture, involvement of militias, or when the victim has a degenerative disease or disability, with maximum punishment cited as reaching up to 53 years and 4 months.
- Gerontocide becomes an autonomous criminal type, replacing the prior approach that treated the victim’s age only as a sentencing aggravator, echoing the earlier typification of feminicide.
- The vote was symbolic with unanimous support from party leaders, and the proposal was authored by Deputy Castro Neto with a favorable report by Deputy Ossesio Silva.