Changes to Sephardic Jew nationality law

RULES || The government has decided to rein-in “any possible abuse” of the nationality law, brought in in 2015 to right the wrongs inflicted on Sephardic Jews in Portugal 500 years ago, following the brouhaha involving how Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich received his Portuguese citizenship.

President Marcelo has already rubber-stamped the legal change, which will increase control on candidates, meaning that they will have to prove an “effective connection with Portugal”.

As Público has stressed, “with these new rules Roman Abramovich would not be eligible to obtain Portuguese citizenship”.

But they have not yet come into force, and they will have no retroactive effect.

In other words, applicants who may have been conferred Portuguese nationalities without being properly entitled to them will, for the time being, be holding onto them.

This has not been welcomed by the Sephardic Genealogical Society, which suspects a number of non-Sephardic Jews have benefited from the scheme.

Meantime, the issue is the subject of criminal investigation.

The ‘spiritual leader’ of the Porto Jewish Community, Rabbi David Litvak, as well as a Portuguese lawyer, are both suspects in a case that has seen them cited with a number of potential crimes, including active corruption, document falsification, criminal association and money-laundering.

The Institute of Registries and Notaries has also announced that its own inquiry into how Roman Abramovich came to be granted Portuguese nationality has resulted in a disciplinary procedure.

The Institute has not yet revealed how many members of staff are involved in this disciplinary procedure, nor identified them.