Additionally, in order to complement the modification of article 245 of the Criminal Procedure Code and prevent it from resulting in a flood of mass releases, on July 19, Law 6,353/19 was enacted, which temporarily amended articles 129, 141 and 251 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which relate to terms to resolve issues related to preventive detention.
With the modification of the last part of article 129, now all the terms of the criminal process are counted in business days, instead of calendar days.
In turn, with the modification of article 141, upon request of the accused person due to urgency upon expiration of legal terms, First Instance Courts and Appeal Courts now have 10 days, instead of 24 hours, to decide requests to review injunctive measures imposing preventive detention, or resolutions that deny release. If the 10 days pass without a decision, release must be granted. Finally, with the modification of article 251, the hearings for reviewing preventive detention measures must be convened within a period of five days, instead of 48 hours.
These articles of the Criminal Procedure Code will return to their original text on February 1, 2020.