If a person is held in custody for longer than three days, and later found to be innocent, that person can request damages to be paid, based on a 1981 law.
115 people have made use of this right in the last ten years, receiving a number of payments as a result.
The majority of these people were acquitted prior to receiving the compensation.
The record is held by a person incarcerated for 1,463 days and later compensated in 2016, receiving a sum of almost €600,000.
The same year, within a matter of days, another person received around €620,000 as compensation, after spending more than three years behind bars. The sum was calculated based on moral and material detriment.
These figures were released by Minister of Justice Felix Braz, in response to a parliamentary question posed by LSAP MP Dan Biancalana.
