Premium
The Senate adopted, on Monday, in plenary, unanimously, with 134 votes "in favour", as the first notified Chamber, the legislative proposal to amend the Criminal Code according to which slavery (art. 209), trafficking in human beings (art. 210), trafficking in minors (art. 211), procuring (art. 213), sexual assault (art. 219), torture (art. 282) and child pornography (art. 374) are included in the category of imprescriptible crimes.
"The purpose of this bill is to ensure the right to justice for all survivors of sexual assault, child trafficking, trafficking in human beings, procuring, child pornography and torture, regardless of the time elapsed since the commission of the crime and until the criminal complaint is filed, as the consequences of such acts are also imprescriptible, the victims suffering from these acts for the rest of their lives, but also to bring justice to the expected and just effects - the real punishment of criminals," the explanatory memorandum of the legislative proposal shows, agerpres.ro confirms.
The initiators, a group of National Liberal party (PNL) and Save Romania Union - Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (USR PLUS) parliamentarians, point out that child trafficking, human trafficking, procuring, sexual assault on minors, child pornography are "serious acts" that "irreparably affect the physical and mental integrity of persons who fall victim to them".
The bill also regulates a new crime, included in art. 266, which stipulates that "the act of the person who, taking note of the commission of an act provided by the criminal law against life, of trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable persons or against the freedom and sexual integrity committed against a minor, does not immediately notify the authorities shall be punished with imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years".
Through an amendment by the Law Committee, a material error in the Criminal Code in the article on child pornography has been corrected. In the new form, it is sanctioned, by increasing by one third the special limits of punishments in aggravating form, and the cases in which the deed is committed by persons who have previously committed a crime against the freedom and sexual integrity against a minor, a crime of child pornography or procuring on a minor.
The legislative proposal will be debated by the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making body in this case.
