The Chamber of Deputies approved the Penal Code yesterday, Tuesday 16 October in one reading and with some modifications. The modifications will increase the maximum sentence to 40 years, penalize the invasion and occupation of lands, establishes 40 years prison sentences for wife/women killers, punishes kidnapping with sentences of between 20 and 30 years, and sets prison terms of 4 to 10 years for adults who make minors commit crimes. Other modifications proposed by several deputies will be heard by the Justice Commission, chaired by Demostenes Martinez who convened the commission for hearings on Thursday 18, Friday 19 and Monday 22 October.
Diario Libre reports that they will discuss the changes proposed by deputies Giovanny Tejada, Eugenio Cedeno, Juan Hubieres, Minou Tavarez Mirabal and Hugo Tolentino Dipp, among others. The idea is to approve the code after a second reading on Wednesday, 24 October. In the bill as approved, robbery will be penalized with sentences from four to 10 years in prison and a fine of between seven and nine minimum salaries, and when the robbery is preceded, accompanied or followed by the death of the victim, it will be punished with 20 to 30-year sentences and fines of 20 to 30 minimum wages. Article 199 categorizes abandonment of minors, and stresses that “the deed of abandoning a minor in any place or order that it be done when there exists a duty to watch and care for the child by the defendant, except when it is done in order to ensure the health and safety of the victim, will be punished by sentences from one day to one year in prison and a fine of between three and six minimum salaries.”