Galery

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A new bill on drugs, which was submitted in Parliament, provides for a life sentence for perpetrators of robberies who used Kalashnikovs and other heavy weapons, fines for corrupt officials, more stringent penalties for racism crimes, as well as a special prosecutor who will be responsible for crimes related to corruption. The bill will rationalise penalty treatment of the accused and pay greater attention to treating drug addicts instead of their criminal prosecution. In addition to provisions related to drug trade, the bill also includes provisions for the detention of the accused, disciplinary punishment, and other topics of legal interest.

Drug dealers with a profit of more than 75,000 euro will suffer more stringent penalties, since options for mitigated treatment because of addiction will no longer be valid. In certain cases of drug distribution (in which the perpetrator uses a weapon, aims to attract minors to drug use or encourages a minor to commit a crime, or causes severe personal injuries or death), the punishment for perpetrators will include life imprisonment or between 10 to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to 600,000 euro. In parallel, according to the bill, various prison terms will be imposed on owners of illegal guns, grenades, machine guns and other weapons.

A special prosecutor for crimes related to corruption will deal with these only, and will not take on other cases. He or she will be elected by the Supreme Judicial Council and will work in collaboration with two prosecutors and deputy prosecutors. According to Justice Minister Antonis Roupakiotis, this position is not intended to replace the two Economic Prosecutors (Grigoris Peponis and Spiros Mouzakitis).

Expeditious methods of proceeding are provided for cases of criminal nature in which officials violated their oath. There will also be a mandatory fine for officials involved in illegal transactions amounting to more than a 50-fold profit compared to their own remuneration.

Another provision of the bill is related to aggravating circumstances - hate crimes for ethnic, racial or religious motives, or because of a different sexual orientation. In the event of recourse to the European Court of Human Rights, there will also be an option to review the case in Greek Civil Courts. There will be a time limit within which the investigation should proceed, the prosecutor should submit a proposal to the judicial council and a decision should be adopted in cases of corruption and cases of high public interest. In such cases, the accused will be detained temporarily in order to avoid dismissal at the end of the 18 months of their detention, like often happens now. Review reports will include a special reminder in terms of the observance of this period.

Another paragraph of the bill provides for the obligation of an employer to re-hire a dismissed employee, if the dismissal is recognised as invalid by the court. Workers will have the right to require that the employer pay all defaulted wages, as well as to insist on actual employment, which can be covered by social insurance.

The Rules of the Supreme Court provide for provisions regarding the amount of monetary penalties in cases of personal insult and honour-undermining publications in print or broadcasts on radio and television. The lower limit provided by law will not apply to these imposed fines, but they will be defined according to the degree of insult and damage.