A draft law amending the Criminal Code and the Contravention Code has been submitted to the Government.
Among other proposals, the authorities intend to make it easier to apply sentencing alternatives to imprisonment and in this way reduce overcrowding in jails.
The Ministry of Justice says that, while the current legislation provides a fairly large list of alternatives to imprisonment, they are not applicable in most cases of crimes and recidivism of high seriousness.
The draft seeks to apply alternatives to prison sentences in as many cases as possible, in particular by replacing the unserved part of the sentence with a milder sentence for all categories of crimes.
The draft contains many other amendments, unrelated to alternative sentences, as well.
One such proposal extends the limitation period for criminal liability for minor crimes from 2 to 3 years. “This change is necessary, because many investigations on many criminal cases are complex and require longer time for examination. Thus, the 2-year statute of limitations is not always sufficient to hold perpetrators of minor crimes responsible, due to proceedings being protracted by the parties involved in the process”, explained the Ministry.
A set of proposed amendments concern environmental offenses. Fines will be raised and a host of environmental offenses will be criminalized, including unauthorized exploitation of the soil, illegal exploitation of underground resources, illegal alteration of the watercourse, illegal tree felling, and others.
The draft also contains additional provisions to the offense of impersonation and false identity to reflect illicit activities involving fake social media accounts, card cloning, or inmates using contraband smartphones to run extorsion scams, among others.
After being examined by the Government, the proposed amendments will be submitted to Parliament for adoption.
