The Senate of the Republic will review this afternoon the modifications made by the Chamber of Deputies to the Criminal Code, approved this morning by the Lower House.
The session convened by the president of the Senate Ricardo de los Santos, is scheduled for 2:00 in the afternoon. The Upper House will only have to know the modifications and approve them in a single reading. If the opposite occurs then I would return to the Chamber of Deputies again and there will be no approval time in this legislature that concludes on August 5.
The president of the Senate said that the main intention is to approve the Criminal Code as it was sent by the Chamber of Deputies but that the decision is of the Assembly.
“We are in the best disposition and in the mood of giving the country a new Criminal Code,” De los Santos said to be interviewed by telephone.
Later, the last stop will be in the National Palace. If receiving the presidential approval, the new legal framework would enter into force a year after its promulgation.
With opposite points of view, the deputies approved at 3:00 in the morning of Thursday the bill of modification of the Criminal Code, a piece that is now closer to replacing the one promulgated by Ulises Heureaux in 1884, which was adapted from the French Code of 1810.
During the plenary more than 50 shifts were exhausted, including that of the president of the deputies, Alfredo Pacheco – who recalled why the code was not promulgated in past governments and cited the reasons why he would vote in his favor, despite supporting the causes – the Plenary validated him in second reading with 159 votes in favor and four against.
The initiative, which had been marked in the first reading on July 23, was approved together with a report containing the modifications submitted by legislators.
Those modifications were rejected. Previously, a commission had socialized the project with the Attorney General of the Republic, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, and the National Police.
Pacheco reacts to Raquel Arbaje and his daughters to the Criminal Code: “I didn’t like it”
The great part of the discussion concentrated on the proposals of variation presented by the deputies themselves.
Although more than 150 modifications were introduced, each congressman sought to record their participation. In this chamber, the regulations had failed three times in the last five years.
The project includes accumulated sentences of up to 60 years in prison and increases the punishment for crimes committed against women, children and vulnerable people.
Now, he returns to the Senate », where he was initially proposed by the senator of the Vega Ramón Rogelio Genao.
The main friction revolved around that some deputies asked to include the three causes of abortion, which was objected by the majority of their companions, who claimed that this would collide with article 37 of the Constitution.
Deputy Wandy Batista (PRM – La Romana), coordinator of the report writing the report, said that, as of August 18, she will submit a separate law to protect the reproductive rights of women.
Despite the contradictions between legislators, the piece was approved with most votes, since many legislators claimed to “be part of the story.”
Deputy Gustavo Sánchez, spokesman of the PLD, said that his organization did not oppose the country to have a new code, but that the dignity of the woman had to be respected. He recalled that Danilo Medina observed him because he did not conceive that a woman had a son product of a rape.
While Deputy Rafael Castillo, spokesman for the force of the people, expressed his support for the proposal and asked President Luis Abinader to promulgate the regulations as soon as possible.
In turn, he listed social tragedies of the past that would have been punished if the new code was already in force.
If approved as it was sent by the Senate Chamber of Deputies, the Public Ministry would begin to use its new legal instrument one year after its promulgation.
With 175 legislators present, the plenary, after listening to deputies of the different party banks, proceeded to submit more than 64 modifications made, of which 42 were approved and the others were removed and rejected.
The important legislative piece in its first article recognizes the supremacy of the fundamental rights of the person, enshrined in the Dominican Constitution and in the international treaties approved by the National Congress, as well as the interpretations made to these by the competent jurisdictional bodies and the Constitutional Court.
A note
Devil’s acid
Whoever throws a toxic, corrosive, flammable or similar nature substance to another person, which causes the victim of any injury, would be sanctioned with a penalty of 30 years of major prison and a fine of 30 to 40 minimum wages. Meanwhile, article 103 would condemn damage to chemical substances.
