Prosecutor-General (PG) Maros Žilinka posted on a social network that it was a mistake to scrap a tool to protect society from those who repeatedly commit petty theft.
Žilinka reacted in this way to the changes brought about by the amendment to the Penal Code that took effect as of August 2024.
"Legislative conditions have been created for the protection of society from offenders, their education and the education of other members of society, as well as for rehabilitation and for society to express moral condemnation of offenders. Concerning the category of offenders who repeatedly commit petty property crime, misdemeanour proceedings usually don't serve as educational or as rehabilitation, and certainly not as a deterrent," stated Žilinka.
At the same time, the PG noted that the dignity of individuals must always be respected while achieving the purpose of criminal proceedings. Therefore, he views labelling the perpetrators of thefts as a "strange proposal" [MP Richard Glück of Smer-SD recently presented his controversial proposal to address petty crime, according to which offenders would have to perform community service wearing jackets that state 'I Stole' - ed.note].
House Vice-chair Tibor Gašpar (Smer-SD) in response to the Prosecutor-General’s criticism said that Sending people to jail for repeated petty thefts isn't right.
"When an offender repeatedly returns to commit such an act, the damage is naturally added up, and when the threshold required for a criminal offence is reached, the case is treated as such," said Gašpar, adding that he doesn't consider an unconditional prison sentence to be a suitable punishment for thefts involving minor damage.
Gašpar said that he prefers alternative penalties and admitted that changes can still be made.
Source: TASR
