This Thursday the President of the Republic Sebastian Piñera, together with the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Hernán Larraín, and the Undersecretary of Justice, Sebastian Valenzuela, presented the bill that creates a new Penal Code.
“This new Penal Code, which is the result of all those efforts, along with bringing Chilean criminal legislation up to date, with the highest legal standards, also updates and modernizes its content, codifies a good part of the criminal legislation that is now scattered throughout multiple special laws and introduces five major innovations. All of them with a single purpose, to better protect the freedoms, security and consequently, the quality of life of our compatriots. ” declared the President
It should be noted that the Penal Code has been in force since 1874, being the oldest in the West. Therefore, it does not contemplate the new forms of criminality such as computer crimes, environmental crimes, cyberbullying, physhing and pharming, harassment, extortion, among others.
Another of the deficiencies that this text currently has is that it imposes very high penalties for crimes that in practice are rarely served with jail. Given this, the reform establishes a new system for determining penalties to prevent serious crimes from being carried out in freedom.
One of the future measures that the reform of the Penal Code brings is the strict penalization of organized crime, since it is currently known as the crime of illicit association and will now be known as “criminal and criminal associations”.
In addition, the bill contemplates harsh punishments for economic crimes and corruption, punishing them with effective prison sentences and high-value fines for those who commit them.
The penalties will cease to be expressed in confusing terms for the population, such as a major or minor prison; and it will be divided according to the punishment in which the person will pay: prison; imprisonment (which can be served in jail or at the convicted person’s home); restricted freedom (which is controlled by a delegate and by telematic monitoring); the fine; and community services.
Regarding this project, Minister Larraín assured: “A Penal Code is a major work, it has around 600 articles and it is a job that takes years to process, therefore, what we have wanted is to consolidate the preparation work with a very broad participation and with a continuity of the State (…) That work is not done in three months, nor six, nor in a year, so we hope that the next Congress will prioritize it and can dispatch it in the next legislature, it would be a great contribution to the legal development of the country “.
