Courts Might Go Softer on Offenders

The punitive imprisonment terms for some categories of offences, including thefts, plunders, robberies and narcotics or psychotropic substances circulation could be reduced. The Parliament approved on Thursday, April 27, in first reading a bill regarding the modification of the Penal Code in this specific sense. In some cases, the imprisonment is replaced with the possibility to pay fines or to effectuate unpaid community works. According to the Ministry of Justice, in the process of studying the Penal Codes of several states, there was found out that the penalties for similar offences are softer than in the Republic of Moldova. At the same time the bill has the aim to implement the recommendations of the European Committee to prevent tortures and punishments and to reduce the over-population within the penitentiaries. Nicolae Esanu, the vice-minister of Justice considers that the only method for solving the over-population problem is to decrease the limits for the penal punishment sanctions, and also to increase the number of the offence components for which alternative punishments could be applied, others than imprisonment. At present, the penitentiaries of the Republic of Moldova hold 8960 convicts, whilst these institutions can offer places for only 6912.