Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee adopted amendments to the Criminal Code to increase penalties for inflicting minor and moderate bodily harm

At an extraordinary sitting in August 3, the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee adopted amendments to the Criminal Code.

The MPs adopted to increase the penalties for minor and medium bodily harm. They accepted that the perpetrator of medium bodily harm could receive up to 8 years in prison instead of the current 6, and that the possibility of probation for minor bodily harm would be abolished.

In addition, it was adopted to provide for up to 2 years of imprisonment for minor bodily injury and to increase the fine from 500 to 1,000 BGN instead of the current 100 to 300 BGN.

The “Vazrazhdane” group also had proposals for changes to the Criminal Code, including to put a minimum of 3 months of imprisonment for minor bodily harm, and to make the penalty for minor bodily harm from three months to three years or probation. Their proposal was also adopted by the votes of 16 MPs.

Desislava Atanasova of GERB-UDF stressed that deep political opposition has no place in the chamber, nor in the legislative process itself. She urged the MPs to work in an expert manner.

Marin Marinov from GERB-UDF said that he had some concerns about the proposals, but clarified that he thought they would be resolved between the first and second reading.

"The real disease is aggression in the society. I think the state should pay more attention to prevention, not the general prevention, but rather a more comprehensive prevention in social and political life," Marinov said.

Emil Dechev, deputy justice minister, said that increasing the amount of punishment is one way, but not the only mechanism, to counter crime.

Hamid Hamid of the MRF said that the Parliament has a number of duties, including to control all independent bodies that are not part of the government.

"How do citizens have control over the judiciary itself? Well, with public scrutiny. This raises the question of whether it is worth the Parliament reducing its presence in these bodies, which in turn allows these bodies to do whatever they want," Hamid said.

He added that he thought Judge Gyoneva at the briefing looked as if she felt unpunishable.

Source: BGNES

Court remands man accused of slashing 18-year-old girl with a knife and inflicting injuries that required 400 stitches