On Wednesday, members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic moved an amendment to the Criminal Code to the second reading. Among other things, it emphasises the imposition of alternative sentences, the distinction between drug dealers and drug users, restorative justice and the harmonisation of criminal rates. The draft from the Justice Ministry is to be the biggest amendment to the Criminal Code since the recodification in 2005.
The amendment to the Criminal Code, which MPs sent on Wednesday to the second reading also makes changes to drug offences, where, among other things, the punishment of drug users is distinguished from drug producers. The determination of the extent of drug offences is to be based, for example, on the measurement of the weight of the seized drug or the number of plants cultivated. The proposal also makes drink-driving more punishable by introducing a state of severe drunkenness of more than two per millilitres.
For economic crime, the maximum penalty is set at 15 years. For corruption offences, organised crime and other offences by which the State protects the most essential values such as life and health, the current legal situation is to be maintained. Criminal penalties for the offence of damaging the EU's financial interests could be increased. This should allow the European Public Prosecutor's Office to conduct more investigations in Slovakia into fraud against the EU budget.
In the meantime, there is also an amendment to the Criminal Code sponsored by the independent MP Tomas Taraba, which would ban any indictment of defendants before the Prosecutor-General decides whether or not to grant them pardon under the controversial Paragraph 363 of the Penal Code. Special Prosecutor's Office prosecutors could also be sentenced to jail if they do not wait for the Prosecutor-General's decision. In addition, if defendants complained about the Special Prosecutor's Office bias, the Prosecutor-General would be entitled to reassign the case to prosecutors under his control.
The Let's Stop Corruption foundation lambasts an amendment sponsored by Tomas Taraba, saying that the much-criticised tool that has already hindered many criminal prosecutions would thus be transformed into an ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card through which not a single case might pass.
Source: TASR
