A draft bill unveiled by the relevant justice ministry in Greece this week foresees stiffer sentences for a handful of felonies, the reinstatement of other offenses and stricter rules for parole, a more-or-less expected - albeit delayed - legislative initiative by the center-right Greek government.
As the main opposition party prior to July 2019, deputies of today's ruling New Democracy (ND) voted against revisions to the country's criminal code, which were engineered by the previous leftist SYRIZA government and ratified by a then razor-slim majority - including MPs from SYRIZA's small right-wing junior coalition partner, the AN.EL party - days before a snap election. SYRIZA lost that election, and today's prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, promised to reverse the revisions, viewed as notoriously lenient by conservative ND party.
Proposed revisions in the current draft bill reinstate a "life sentence" for convictions of high treason, homicide, gang rape, the sexual assault of a minor and homicide during the course of an armed robbery.
A life sentence currently handed down by a Greek court, and upheld at the appellate level, translates into a minimum of roughly 16 years in prison. Under the draft legislation presented during a Cabinet meeting this week, and chaired by Mitsotakis, the minimum time served will also be increased by a couple of years.
Other proposed revisions include the reinstitution of the offense of aggravated bodily harm, along with stricter sentences for assault against an individual executing his assigned employment duty, such as tax bureau inspectors.
Along with a stricter framework for parole and conditional release, the draft bill includes a provision by which a statute of limitation for indecency offenses against minors to begin only after the victim has become an adult. Another revision includes a stricter sentence for sexual harassment in the workplace.
Finally, incest will again be considered a felony in the criminal code, two years after the Tsipras government downgraded the offense.
