The article by Luís Ganhão raises a constitutional question about the State's use of assets seized from defendants before a final conviction exists. The Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, in Article 32, establishes that every defendant is presumed innocent until the conviction sentence becomes final, which is a fundamental pillar of the rule of law.
The author questions whether the State, when seizing a vehicle that still belongs to the defendant, can use it for its own benefit during a process that can last years. He imagines the scenario of a seized car that, instead of remaining stored, is placed at the service of a public entity, suffering wear, accumulating kilometres and losing value. When the defendant is acquitted and the vehicle is returned to him, the question arises as to whether what was always his has really been "restored" to him.
Ganhão distinguishes between two situations: on one hand, the State temporarily limiting the exercise of a right to protect a procedural purpose, which he considers legitimate; on the other, the State deriving its own utility from an asset, which may raise constitutional questions. The presumption of innocence is not just a rule about the final outcome of the trial, but also a guarantee about how the citizen should be treated while that outcome does not exist.
The article does not intend to provide a definitive answer, but raises a reflection on the balance between the needs of criminal justice, the public interest, the right to property and the presumption of innocence. Ganhão argues that it may be legitimate to question whether the State, by moving from merely storing a seized asset to actively using it, has crossed a boundary that deserves constitutional scrutiny.
