Penalties for perpetrators to be harsher in Moldova

Penalties for perpetrators will be harsher. A law on the matter has been recently promulgated by Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti and published in the Moldovan official paper Monitorul Oficial.

The head of the combating torture department of the Prosecutor General's Office, Ion Caracuian, said the law's implementation will create conditions for making efficient the activity of the prosecution bodies in preventing and combating torture.

The amendment to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and Criminal Code is related to including the exact regulations on exclusive competence of prosecutor while considering the cases of torture and ill-treatment.

Thus, starting from 21 December, deliberately inflicting of pain or physical or mental suffering, which represents inhuman or degrading treatment, by a public person is criminally punishable. In this context, it is inflicted the penalty with imprisonment from two to six years or a fine worth from 800 to 1,000 conventional units, in both cases with the deprivation of the right to hold certain posts from three to five years.

The penalties for torture will be tougher, the guilty people will risk a ten-year imprisonment, and not five years as it was so far. For the torture committed against a minor or pregnant women, the defendants will be sentenced to 15 years in prison. Also, once tightening the sanctions, in no case there will be possible conditioned suspending of imprisonment inflicted to people guilty of committing torture.

Another completion in the Criminal Procedure Code sees that if when holding suspects, it is set the presence of bodily injury, the person carrying out the criminal investigation will inform prosecutor who will order executing a forensic observation.

Adapted from Moldpres