Today, the Ministry of Justice sent the government an amendment to the Criminal Code and other criminal regulations. The proposed changes consist in supporting the imposition of alternative punishments instead of imprisonment, in milder punishment for petty crime or in the partial decriminalization and legalization of self-cultivation and possession of cannabis. It should now be possible to impose a fine for any crime, the rate for repeated theft is reduced, non-payment of alimony will be punishable only in certain cases. The office stated in a press release that the proposal will modernize criminal law and make criminal proceedings more efficient.
The proposed changes are intended to help overcrowded prisons. The ministry had previously announced that it wanted to go the route of wider use of monetary penalties and decriminalization of certain actions. In the preliminary report, which is available to ČTK, it has now emphasized that in the case of serious acts – for example rape – it will not be possible to impose a monetary penalty separately.
In the case of neglect of mandatory maintenance, only cases where non-payment of alimony exposes the dependent person to the danger of emergency should be criminalized. Perpetrators will now face a maximum of one year in prison. Penalties for endorsing terrorism on the Internet are also being reduced: according to the ministry, the current five-to-fifteen-year sentence for “statements on social networks that can rather be described as stupid” is very high.
Other changes include the fact that the penalty of banning the performance of public contracts, participation in public tenders and the ban on receiving subsidies will be imposed on natural persons as well, not only on legal entities. The attached amendment to the criminal code should, among other things, simplify the presentation of the indictment and the pronouncement of the sentence, which tend to be very extensive, for example, in the case of economic crimes.
The original form of the proposal, which the ministry sent out for comments in March this year, faced criticism from some experts. The Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court also had reservations. Minister of Justice Pavel Blažek (ODS) did not want to comment on the amendment in the media until the comments were settled. Now the ministry has announced that it has modified its original proposal, also based on a discussion with experts. “A number of previously proposed measures were re-evaluated when they were deleted, on the contrary, some measures were incorporated into the proposal, which were not considered in the version sent to the comment procedure,” the office described in the submission report.
The mentioned newly implemented measures include the expansion of punishment for hate crimes or a more benevolent approach to self-cultivation of cannabis, with which the ministry “responded to developments on the political scene”. Nevertheless, the office admits that in this respect “it was not possible to reach an agreement on quantitative indicators”.
The amendment also focuses on restorative justice – that is, the support of victims of crimes and the straightening of their relations with the perpetrator – or on the state’s quick reaction in the event of a violation of the conditions of alternative punishments, for example a suspended sentence.
Next Tuesday, October 1, Minister Blažek will inform President Petr Pavel of the planned changes in criminal law. Last month, the President emphasized the necessity of adopting an amendment to the Criminal Code in connection with the problems of the Czech prison system. At the time, the office promised to submit the changes to the government by the end of September, so that the legislators would have time to approve them during this election period.
The Ministry added today that it has also developed the so-called children’s certificate, i.e. the draft parameters of the extract from the criminal record issued for working with children. It will be discussed by the House subcommittee on domestic and sexual violence on Tuesday. “It is expected that during the legislative process, the modification of this special extract from the Criminal Register will become part of the pending changes to the criminal regulations,” the office wrote. In October, he also wants to submit a draft law on the withdrawal of property of illegal origin to the comment procedure.
Source: www.tyden.cz
