Portugal

which on October 3 rejected the petition for special leave.
The arguments in the petition before the Supreme Court were based on so- cio-lcgal grounds; the petitioners had acted in the manner they did because they were appalled by the injustice of the massive suffering and suppression of the poor and they wanted to shock and shake the custodians of the status quo. their act therefore stood on a separate footing from the common run of crimes; further, there has been a growing trend against the death penalty as legal barbarity discernible in the pronouncements of the Supreme Court and the penal reform currently before Parliament. The President had not taken these factors into account when he rejected the mer- ey petitions.