Portugal has approved a law granting citizenship rights to the descendants of the Jews it persecuted 500 years ago.

Luis Marques Guedes, the cabinet spokesman, has said on Thursday that the government has passed changes to its nationality law, and it will now provide dual citizenship rights for Sephardic Jews, the common term used to describe those people who once lived in the Iberian peninsula.

As reported in an AP article, Guedes clarifies the move saying that the new rights will apply to those who are able to demonstrate "a traditional connection" to Portuguese Sephardic Jews through "family names, family language, and direct or collateral ancestry."

Applicants awaiting their new citizenship will first go through a vetting process by Portuguese Jewish community institutions and government agencies.

They will also have to divulge any information about any criminal records.

The entire application procedure will take four months. Applicants will not need to travel to Portugal to apply.

In 2013, the Portuguese Parliament unanimously endorsed the law. In the time since, the government has been setting up all of the legal details and establishing the proper administrative procedures.

The effective date of the law was not immediately announced.

Last year, Spain adopted similar legislation.

Portugal has been actively trying to right its past treatment of Sephardic Jews.

In 1506 in Lisbon, more than 2,000 Jews are believed to have been murdered by local people during what is referred to as the "Easter massacre."

During the Portuguese Inquisition in 1536, Jews were persecuted, tortured, and burned at the stake in numbers that reached tens of thousands.

Mario Soares, Portugal’s ex-president, met in 1988 with members of Portugal's Jews community and formally apologized for the Inquisition. In 2000, the leader of Portugal's Roman Catholics issued a formal public apology for the suffering brought down by the Catholic Church. In 2008, a monument dedicated to the dead was raised outside the Sao Domingos church, the site where the Easter massacre started.